Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery is located in Newberg, Oregon, and is one of the true farmhouse breweries in the state. It’s a working farm, and the beers are handcrafted and locally-inflected; here’s what the brewery says about them:

Using pure well water, wild yeasts (some even propagated from our own fruit trees and beehives), homegrown grains, hops, and fruits, and house sour cultures, we create, age, blend, and bottle unique, small-batch beers exhibiting the beautiful wildness of Oregon terroir.

The brewery announced yesterday the initial release of its Sketchbook Series of limited-edition beers, in collaboration with Portland artist Jason Sturgill. It’s a showcase of artistic creativity from the pairing, and being released in cans gets the brewery’s beers into more people’s hands (especially during this time, when in-person drinking is difficult at best).

Here’s the full press release:

After crafting over two hundred batches since 2016, Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery is set to delve deeper with an all-new series showcasing new directions in beer making combined with playful artworks by Portland illustrator Jason Sturgill. Comprised of proven recipes, occasional barrel-aged rarities, and other farmhouse formulas that have graduated from the taps to 4-packs, the Sketchbook Series kicks off with NELS (4.6% abv), a hoppy, refreshing farmhouse ale available in four-packs ($16 for four 16 oz. cans) starting today at the brewery and around the state via Portland’s Upstanding Distribution after Monday, January 25th.

Using top quality Oregon barley from Mecca Grade Estate Malt, the farm’s pure well water, lushly aromatic Nelson Sauvin hops, and an all-oak fermentation with juicy Norwegian farmhouse yeasts in white oak puncheons formerly used for Oregon-grown white wines, NELS wafts aromas of citrus and creamsicle. On the palate the beer is well-balanced with a delicate pop of white grape and a rounded malt presence and quenching hop character. Future Sketchbook Series beers will run the gamut from barrel-aged, dry-hopped wild and sour ales to stouts, grisette, and myriad other styles both familiar and far-out. “There is no upper number limit planned for the series,” says brewery founder Christian DeBenedetti. “That would defeat the purpose, which is to fuel our creativity and dream, to keep exploring.”

Turning every can into a canvas, each label will feature a montage of concepts from the sketchbooks of award-winning brewery artist Jason Sturgill. Northwest native Sturgill has worked with an array of clients including Muji and Warby Parker, earning a following on Instagram (here) and accolades including a 2020 Silver medal at the prestigious Society of Illustrators annual awards (NYC) for another of the brewery’s most popular offerings, Honeycone IPA. He’s designed all of Wolves & People’s labels and logos. Whereas many labels he’s created have taken months of fine-tuning, Sturgill jumped at the chance to embark on a more spontaneous process, kicking off with a playful array of curiously purple, canine-like characters pulled directly from his hand-illustrated notebook and rendered onto a can. “It feels like a natural place to go, since all of my ideas for the brewery start in a sketchbook,” says Sturgill, who counts among his influences renowned Japanese illustrator Ryohei Yanagihara, France’s Bernard Chadebec, and contemporary Brit artist James Jarvis. “There’s lots of stuff in the sketchbook that I like, but never finds a home. It was fun!”

About Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery

Established in 2014 by Christian DeBenedetti on his family’s historic Springbrook Hazelnut Farm in Newberg, Oregon and opened to the public in May 2016, Wolves & People is a true farmhouse brewery in Willamette Valley wine country, with a full-time staff of three. Wolves & People is dedicated to an array of balanced, food-friendly, and meticulously crafted beers utilizing local and brewery-grown grains & hops, extensive wild-, native-, and indigenous yeasts, and barrel-aging in locally-sourced wine and spirits barrels. The brewery uses pure, untreated Parrett Mountain water, house yeast cultures, and many local fruits in certain beers. The brewery is located at 30203 N.E. Benjamin Road, Newberg, Ore., and open to the public for pick-up and outdoor tasting from Thursday-Sunday (currently 2-5pm on Thursday and Friday; 12-5pm on Saturday and Sunday). For more information, go to wolvesandpeople.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram @WolvesandPeople.

NELS is brewed with Nelson Sauvin hops and kveik yeast and sounds awfully interesting. Keep an eye out for these beers; the Wolves & People website has a Find Our Beers page which should help you find them.