First ever fermentation! Preservative screw up?

[Nomad86]

Hi all, this is my first post here. Seems like a good community you have here.

Ok, Yesterday I started to fermen 1,5gal of sugar and 1,5gal of fruit squash.

The sugar wash is doing great but the fruit squash is very slow. Very little activity. Didn't take me long to blame preservatives. I didn't know that I should cook the squash first to get rid of the preservatives. So now I have Potassium sorbate and Sodium benzoate in it...

Is this salvageable or should I just dump it?

Thanks

 

[Maylar]

Dump it.

 

[Nomad86]

Dump it.

No way to salvage? Why will it not be drinkable?

 

[Maylar]

With sorbate and benzoate in there it'll be nearly impossible to ferment. It can be done, by massive over pitching yeast and making a huge starter but if you're not an advanced wine maker it'd be a real challenge.

 

[JimRausch]

Maylar speaks to the truth!

 

[Seamonkey84]

Dump your fruit in with your sugar batch, it should have enough yeasts in it now to get it going for you. or, to not throw all of it together, cold crash your sugar wash in your fridge, pour most of the sugar water out with some yeasts, then dump the rest of the yeast in your fruit batch once it’s warmed back to room temp.