What do you do if you are 29 years old, working as a C.P.A. and wish you were doing something else? Morgan Herzog is answering that question by opening the Beer Junction at 4707 42nd Ave. S.W. The store will start with approximately 600 beers for sale but Herzog hopes to eventually offer 1000 different brands from around the world. The store will open for business, "Hopefully June 25," Herzog said, with a grand opening in July, featuring tastings and visits from local brewers.

"About six months ago I decided to try something new, but I wasn't sure what it was going to be at the time", said Herzog, " so I was over at the Porterhouse (a restaurant in the Admiral District), and I was sampling through their beer list with my girlfriend and I just kind of realized that there was no really great place to take beers home." That provided the spark to leave his career crunching numbers and venture into the world of Ales and Pilsners.

Herzog has been to some well known places for beer including Japan, Ireland (including a stop at the Guinness Brewery), and his favorite, Germany where he spent time in Munich, home to such famous beers as Lowenbrau and Paulaner. His research is primarily personal, "trying them out and liking them but when you get to 600 to 700 beers it gets kind of tough," he said laughing. He also takes recommendations and tries to have at least one new beer a night to see if it is good enough for the store.

If you are curious about a beer you've never tried but don't want to have to purchase it to find out, he's got you covered.
"That's one of our goals," said Herzog, to make recommendations and, "to have weekly tastings." He plans on bringing local brewers in to talk about their products. Washington State has over 100 breweries, but his concentration is not highly local. "It's kind of from all over the country", he said. Not all the regional breweries offer bottled product but, "We do have a very good selection of all the local beers," he said.

"The way beer is evolving is really starting to rival wine with the different alcohol content and different flavors. A lot of people don't know that you can age beer, they just get better with time," Herzog said. Not all beers age well he noted and aging takes place in bottles not kegs or cans and is treated like wine, "In a cool dark place." If you are curious about which beers you might try this with, Herzog is happy to help.

The Beer Junction will also offer kegs to go but only on a special order basis. "They won't be here in the store. Just come on in or call us and order what you want, give us at least five days and we will get it for you. We can get everything from a 'Pony Keg' up to a full keg of beer (124 16 oz beers). We'll have a booklet here of brands you can look through."

For certain breweries, especially from Europe, "Each beer has its own glass type," and The Beer Junction will offer an assortment of branded glassware, appropriate for one particular brand. It's not just about presentation. Scientific studies show that the shape of the glass can affect how a beer tastes.

Beer isn't the only thing there, they'll have wine too, but it's really more to serve as a one stop shop for those buying beer who also need to have something for those who don't drink it. "We'll carry 50 or 60 types of wine. We picked good local wines mainly from Walla Walla, at a good price point, say $10 to $20," said Herzog, "our wine list is mainly Washington wines and we tried to pick 2-3 of each type for example merlot and cabernet sauvignon)."

Among the most unusual beers the store carries are "Mephistopheles" (which is a 19% alcohol stout), and "Saison Du Buff" with herbs in it, "a lot of Rosemary... It would be great with like a Rosemary chicken dish," Herzog offered.

The store will be open Wed-Thursday from Noon to 8 PM, and "a little bit later on Friday and Saturday," he said. Sunday from 11 to 5 and closed on Mondays.

In a nod to customer friendliness Herzog said, "Our customers will have a chance to have their own personal shelf in the store so it will be like 'John's Picks or Bob's Picks' where they can pick out their own beers and we'll hold that shelf for a month and then rotate it out."

You can call the Beer Junction at 206-938-BEER (2337) or reach them on Facebook. Their website is "still in the works" but eventually you will be able to see all the brands the store carries and even place special requests through the site.

Herzog who has lived in West Seattle for five years said, " For me it was the right time and the right place. I wanted to try something new. It might not be the right time for everyone or right place for everyone...but I love it over here. It was an unmet need for West Seattle."