Beer Guru Stephen Beaumont will be in attendance at this year’s Halifax Seaport BeerFest.  Tickets for the event, which will take place on August 10th & 11th, can be purchased at several NSLC locations and online (there are surcharges for online purchases).  Here is the related press release I’ve received from festival organizers:

Once described as “beerdom’s Brillat-Savarin,” Stephen Beaumont is one of the world’s most authoritative voices on beer today, as well as a widely recognized writer on spirits,food, cocktails and travel. He is co-author (with Tim Webb) of the landmark survey of the global beer scene, The World Atlas of Beer, which will be published in no fewer than nine countries in the fall of 2012.

In addition to the World Atlas, Stephen has authored or contributed to a dozen books, including two editions of The Great Canadian Beer Guide; 1995’s A Taste for Beer, a pioneering book with a full chapter devoted to beer and food pairing; The Premium Beer Drinker’s Guide (2000), in which he furthers his exploration of the culinary harmonies found between beer and fine cuisine; The beerbistro Cookbook (2009), co-authored with chef Brian Morin and based on the beer-focused cuisine of the Toronto restaurant he co-founded; and the Michael Jackson literary tribute Beer Hunter, Whisky Chaser (2009).

Stephen contributes eight regular columns to publications as diverse as the spirits quarterly, Whisky Advocate, and the culinary journal, Flavours; the men’s lifestyle magazine, Sharp, and the beer specialist bi-monthly, The Celebrator; the U.S. hospitality industry standard, Nation’s Restaurant News, and the foodie favourite, CityBites. He also serves on the editorial tasting panels of both Taps and All About Beer, and contributes regularly to a variety of other publications, including Fine Cooking and Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

Stephen also maintains a significant online presence, contributing to epicurious.com, cheersonline.com and winemag.com, and drawing upwards of 1,000 readers a day to his blog at worldofbeer.com. In 2012, he became the beer editor of chichaku.com, a new website directed towards the outbound Chinese traveller.

When he is not writing about or tasting beer and spirits, Stephen travels the world talking about them, whether at a beer dinner in Atlanta, a festival in São Paulo or a competition in Milan. He is an outspoken advocate of staff training in beer for bars and restaurants and has worked as beverage consultant for a large number of hospitality companies, including Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the Walt Disney Company, the Prime Restaurant Group and FAB Concepts, among many others. These efforts led to him being honored in 2009 with the Cheers Magazine “Raising the Bar” award for his “noteworthy and sustained contribution to the world of beverage alcohol.”