Boingk, in my opinion anything lighter in body than a mild or a cream ale is too thin :lol: . Seriously, your points are absolutely valid.....but early in the thread it was mentioned that the blend was specifically for a lager kit. I dont know the particular IBU for this brand, but I would bet my left one it is somewhere in the region of the 17 IBU you mentioned in your post. (basing this on the ibu of coopers tins, which is known, as they publish it. lager is 17 IBU bang on.) So the blend of 600d 400m is a compromise to get as much malt in without hopping as you can, without reducing the volume too far.
So no worries, boingk. I agree with you, 110%. It's just not what this thread was aiming at. (at least, not what I thought it was aiming at.)
My opinion is, when you do start adding additional hops, why not go that little bit further and add all malt? If you need to up the IBU anyway, a few more grams of hops will allow you to do an all malt beer. It has always mystified me how people, after taking the great leap forward into doing hop boils, continue to use blends. :huh: . I can understand having hesitancy to do a boil for the first time. I was there, once, and am not having a go. Confidence and experience will get you to the point where you feel ok in using hops. But continuing to use ingredients other than malt after you have re-hopped a couple and have confidence in the technique is just strange to me.
And Bribies post is 100% bang on the money. I have never used maltodextrin, ever. (at least, not since I stopped using pre mixed blends that have it in.) Malt extract contains a certain amount of dextrins (but not enough for a good amount of body), carapils and other forms of crystal malt are definately the way to go.