It's hard out there for a wannabe biodiesel homebrewer. You can spend weeks clicking through forums and how-to sites, but sometimes all you really need is some hard time getting your hands dirty before you understand the basics. (Or maybe that's just me. My eyes tend to glaze over at the sheer volume of biodieselry available these days.) So this summer, instead of learning to kayak or make my own skis, I'm going to study under one of the many self-proclaimed masters of transesterification at a biodiesel workshop.

Another thing I'd like to do this summer: figure out a synonym for tipping point, as in "American acceptance of biodiesel as a legitimate fuel alternative is reaching the tipping point," but that's another post, another blog.

Around the country this summer, biodiesel workshops are being offered on everything from how to bag free waste vegetable oil from your local burger joint to full-on policy wonk-outs. In Montana, where biodiesel production is seen as a great greasy hope for economic recovery, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality is holding three biodiesel workshops in June and July covering the agronomics of growing oil-seed stocks as well as fuel-production basics.

The Oregon Biodiesel Workshop is offering monthly two-hour orientations and daylong workshops -- including full diesel-engine rebuilds -- throughout the summer and beyond.

Iowa State's Mechanical Engineering department is holding a couple of biodiesel technology workshops that will cover the basics of production as well as business management for biodiesel producers: one in July, one in October, and -- for all you well-organized planner-types out there -- one in March of 2007.

For those of us who like last-minute methods of planning, there's a biodiesel conference going on right now in Athens, Georgia. If you're lucky, you can hit Day Two of the Southeastern Biodiesel Workshop and still make the tour of the University of Georgia's biorefinery labs.