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As the Brewers Association reports an 11 percent volume growth for U.S. craft brewers in 2010 and a total U.S. brewery count that has climbed to its highest level since 1900—and there's even a new iPhone case (called the iOpener) that has a beer key and a scanner that counts your beers and can tweet which one and where you are enjoying it—Monterey County remains woefully remedial on small-production suds.

The city of Seaside couldn't quite figure out how to help, failing to clear enough zoning and commerce obstacles to make the proposed Post No Bills craft tasting house a reality in the sadly under-occupied Seaside City Center.

Fortunately the beer geek utopia from Mark Moses, brother of Monterey Bay Beerfest master Jeff—starring 250 hard-to-find beers, six rotating draft beer offerings available for tasting flights, and a lounge to crack an exotic beer for a $1 corkage and try her out—ain’t tapped out yet.

The new destination: the bottom floor of The Design Center in Sand City (above), which could use the nice mixed-use boost.

The patio out front, the residents above, the high ceilings and the land of sand’s industrial feel should all play nicely into the project. The height of it makes it a landmark, and an old tasty craft beer outlet's legacy also helps.

"Everybody's got the memory of [Morgan Christopher's old place Ol' Factory Cafe," Mark says, "and this is right across the street."

He adds that lift-off date is June 1. This summer just got sweeter.