I read with some jealousy the recountings of visitors to last week's Mondial de la Biere in Montreal. Jack Curtin's retelling of the road trip he took with Lew Bryson is particularly entertaining - there is something about reading American reflections upon their trips to la belle province...and, say, meeting poutine for the first time. But learning along the way that there are Lew's billable beer enthusiast opportunities to be had presenting to the New York State Association of Traffic Engineers was almost as great a revelation. Reading the beer writing of others often reminds me of all the things I have yet to do or never did:

- I have never made lager though I have made plenty of ale.

- while I have bought rounds in a Polish sailors' club in a somewhat grim Baltic town in 1991 where flare guns were shot off inside the place as a form of entertainment, I didn't write down good enough notes to recall that one fabulous beer we drank.

-I was in Belgium and drank nothing worth considering.

- I have only gone to one beer fest not even able to swing the logistics of getting my butt 25 miles to the south this weekend for the Sackets Harbor 1812 Beer & Wine Festival where its supposed to be perfectly stinking humid and in the 80s on Saturday.

- I have never run a pub like Stonch - though, like laying turf, I have done my life time quota for bartending...and, no, your drunken jokes really were not funny.

- though I could do a 180 pour with the bottle straight down into the glass in 1988, I seem to have no idea how to do it when I try in 2008.

But that is no reason to sook about it. Last summer I made a study for myself around sour beers and was gratified by how much I learned. What to study this year as the weather seats up? Though I have opened myself to German beers, I certainly could do well by making more of an effort. I think I will try to focus on Ontario brews a bit more, too.

But what would you have me do? Where do I need to get some personal imbrewvement?