Home Distiller

Is there any problem with adding ice cubes directly to the wash instead of sitting the pot in a tub of ice water or trying to cool it with a heat exchanger?

If you're going to add unboiled, unsanitized tap water to your wash anyway, why not add ice made from the same unboiled, unsanitized tap water?

I tried it and had no problems.

I understand that if I was trying to maintain homebrew quality sanitation, I wouldn't be using unsanitized water at all, ice or not. But if you are going to use regular tap water, why waste time and effort trying to cool the wash with a heat exchanger or ice water bath?

Dilution would be my only concern. If you're going to dilute the wash anyway, why not? I've added tap water to much beer with no problem.

I've thrown snow into hot mash before to help cool it. Nice clean snow that had just fallen, seemed ok after.