I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.

I'm Levy Dalton.

I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, Can you name a few different types of wetlands? I'm asking because the

ecosystem of wetlands is crucial to some of our most treasured drinks.

We've got marshes, lagoons, mudflats, and you guessed it, bogs.

It's the funnest wetland to say, Bogg, and also one of the most important types of wetlands in our history.

Boggs are unique ecosystems characterized by a constant wetness, high soil acidity, and low soil fertility.

The plants that can grow in this environment are slow growing mosses, berries, and

and unusual carnivorous plants that cannot get enough nutrients from the

soil so they've evolved to consume insects for fuel.

Ew.

A bog environment is anaerobic and highly tannic.

Low oxygen, tannins, acid, and the absence of fast-growing plants make conditions for the creation

of peat and also for the preservation of history.

Peat, of course, is used in producing scotched whiskey and a few other drinks, like some beers.

But beyond what Pete gives us today, bogs are artifact treasure troves.

And through bogs, we can can peer directly into the past and

grasp how people lived, ate, and drank thousands of years ago. All sorts of vessels

have been uncovered that have barley and meed residues.

Now how did all this mead and beer get into the bogs?

Well some archaeologists think that people jumped it in the bogs on purpose as a sacrifice.

But life wasn't all fun and games throwing pots of meat into the sleepy bogs.

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