EDIBLE: Adored craft beer house Post No Bills has new owners.

Way back in 2010, long before Barack Obama’s hair turned gray or anyone had heard of sour beer, four of us sat cross-legged on an endless cement surface in Sand City. We were ants on the expansive ground floor of the Independent building at 600 Ortiz Ave., pouring Stone 22s into cups and trying to picture what was coming.

It required some imagination.

Some 12,000 square feet of empty space stretched around us, interrupted only by structural columns.

Local poet and publisher Dan Linehan was there. So was former Offset Project operations chief/home brewer Abbie Beane. “I’ll never forget, even though I was drinking a lot of beer,” Beane says. “The whole space was barren. Did we even have a table?”

Also present was Jeff Moses, who started Monterey Beer Festival and consulted his brother Mark Moses on the creation and curation of the place.

“It was a raw space that needed life,” Jeff says. That life-of-its-own would become cult hit Post No Bills (324-4667).

They had tried to get their craft beer concept approved for the City Center in Seaside, but City Council members thought it would be more Shadowbox than upmarket bottle shop.

Contemporary beer lovers didn’t need help with the concept, citing Bay Area spots like Beer Revolution (Oakland) or City Beer (San Francisco). They also didn’t have to look that far, with Ol’ Factory Cafe earning a loyal following via good concrete-and-steel ambiance and small-production suds just down Ortiz Avenue. Before OFC closed, that is.

“That left a hole,” Jeff Moses says.

That hole vanished for Sand City – and Monterey County, really – thanks to a tap house designed to cultivate conversation through the table arrangement and a vast and well-curated selection of beers.

PNB started with more than a dozen smaller brands on draft, including some limited-release beers born of Moses’ relationship with brewers, plus a 300-bottle-deep cache of different format beers in the fridge, available for take-home or in-house (for a $1 tapping fee).

The urban/industrial feel of the place consciously reflected the craft beer it peddled and the wider culture.

The idea: graffiti, like the burgeoning industry, is driven by independent, celebratory and artistic instincts.

“I’ll never forget, even though I was drinking a lot of beer.”

The name of the place itself evokes the spray-painted warning on many big-city buildings, as in no “bills” – or concert/promotional/personal posters – go here. By now scores of bills plaster the west wall of the high-ceiling space.

PNB’s birth and growth coincided with the craft beer explosion in California and its increasing visibility countrywide.

“Post No Bills grew into its maturity as did craft beer,” Moses adds.

Smaller-batch breweries have grown exponentially, from 620 to upwards of 2,400 microbreweries since 2010, according to the Brewers Association. Santa Cruz seems to introduce a new quality operation every few weeks, with more on the way. If craft beer contributed $55.7 billion to the U.S. economy in 2014, imagine what it’ll do in 2017.

Meanwhile PNB has developed into an anchor for a thriving residential building and a beer community.

That means the sign in the window, announcing new ownership and an updated title (Post No Bills Craft Beer House and Tasting Bar) might make craft beer lovers nervous.

Only it’s great news.

~ ~ ~

Popular longtime manager Kye Ricks started as a beertender commuting an hour from Greenfield to do what he loved (in addition to two other jobs).

He helped usher in PNB’s ongoing golden age as general manager (after a move to Marina).

Now he has teamed with his wife, Sarah, and another couple to complete a sale that has been in the works for more than six months.

Ricks is the primary architect behind the current roster of tap takeovers, food-truck nights and the ever-rotating selection that includes current gems like FoundersAzacca IPA, a rich Alesmith 12-percent Belgian Christmas-style ale and a Firestone-Walker Agrestic wild red ale (aka “feral”) from their lauded Barrelworks series.

“I want it to be a welcoming place, comfortable like a local bar, with good recommendations,” he says. “It’s nice that we can make it really locally owned.”

At that junction, he nods to the camera Mark Moses once used to monitor things from Denver when he couldn’t visit as much as he’d like. (Jeff left Sand City for L.A. two years ago.) Ricks adds the main reason they made an offer was to make sure any potential sale didn’t threaten PNB’s DNA, which includes freedom to bring in food or order in directly.

“We’re upgrading some stuff, like signage,” he says. “But we’re not going to do food, we’re not going to do Budweiser. We want it to stay Post No Bills.”

Regulars will recognize the other two investors in Amber and Michael Kohler of Seaside, as they were early-and-often adopters of the place.

Other locals may remember them as the resourceful – and atypical – brains behind Cards Against Humanity parody Crabs Adjust Humidity, which helped fund their craft coup.

“Our big motivation: We love Post No Bills how it is,” Amber says, “and want it to be here a long time.” Ditto. And cheers.

~QUICKBITES ~

• Castle Rock Coffee (998-7187) is now open 5:30am-3pm next to Toro Cafe on Highway 68. More on the blog.
• The Giant Artichoke (717-4280) is on its way out on Cannery Row, and a nearby spot may follow. Details on the blog.
• P.G. Snack Shack (258-9686), from the couple who owned now-closed gyro joint Koko’s Cafe on Alvarado, is now open on the corner of David and Ransford in Pacific Grove. The quirky menu features exotic jerkys, hot dogs, Italian sodas and a bunch of baklavas.
• My Attic 1937 Drink Lounge is done and moved out after a four-year run on Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey.
• In Oldtown’s 201 Main, Giorgio’s is closed for maintenance through Friday, Jan. 13. Neighboring cafe Ticinio’s will reopen Feb. 1 with a new menu.
• Kirk Lombard, author of The Sea Forager’s Guide to the Northern California Coast, gives a free book talk on sustainable harvesting at Monterey Bay Aquarium Auditorium 6pm Thursday, Jan. 12 (648-4851).
• California has some new laws in 2017 (p. 12). Powdered alcohol is now illegal to make, sell or possess. Barber shops and beauty salons can serve wine and beer if it’s free and before 10pm.
• The nominees for the 2016 Seventh Annual John “Spud” Spadaro Award: GM Alfredo Ortiz (Whaling Station), bartender Regina Morrison (Beach House) and conciergeLori Carter (Carriage House Inn). Presentation happens Jan. 20, with Sicilian steak dinner by The Spaghetti Hill Gang ($25, 373-1285) at the Monterey Elks Lodge. A lifetime achievement award will be given to the late Larry Segovia’s family on his behalf too.
• Lopez Restaurante y Cantina in downtown Monterey does a big-value tequila tasting 6-8pm Thursday, Jan. 5, with four brands for a modest $10.
• In its first year as a nonprofit, The Big Sur Food & Wine Festival was able to donate a total of $25,000 to Big Sur nonprofits. That’s just awesome.
• Hollywood and West Hollywood’s Saint Felix bar serves a 40-ounce bottle of Colt 45, in a brown bag, for $15.
• Czech proverb: “A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it’s better to be thoroughly sure.”