When Jim and Laurie Judd’s daughter, Jocelyn, broke her neck during an April 2014 skiing accident in Wyoming and ended up paralyzed, her parents feared she might never walk again, let alone ski.
A decade later, Jocelyn is back to both walking and skiing.
Partially in celebration of her recovery and those who helped along the way, the Judds’ Morton-based brewery Timber Patch Brewing is releasing its first canned beer — the Full Recovery IPA.
At the same time, the release of the brew marks the fourth anniversary for the brewery, which opened in a tumultuous era for businesses.
Timber Patch Brewing started in 2020, just two weeks before the first COVID-19 shutdown. The small brewery has managed to survive despite being in a remote, rural community and only having a single four-barrel fermenter capable of producing eight kegs worth of beer per batch.
Originally opened by the Judds, hobbyist homebrewers from Randle, along with Rich and Brenda French, the Judds are now Timber Patch Brewing’s sole owners.
“Brewing beer is a lot of work, and they just decided it wasn’t for them,” Jim said. “We’ve been running this ourselves for two years now.”
Timber Patch Brewing, located at 180 Second St. in Morton, is open from 3 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays and noon to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Though the brewery will be open on Thursday, March 14, the Full Recovery IPA release will take place on Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16.
“We’re making it a Friday and Saturday deal. We’ll have a cooler here with our canned beer in it and we’ll have live music,” Jim said.
Live music will be performed by Soul Purpose from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday and by Brian Welch from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday.
Along with selling the canned beer at the brewery, Jim said he is also working with local stores to stock it at various locations around Lewis County.
A full recovery
Back in 2014 in Wyoming, Jocelyn, 27 at the time, was a skilled skier who had attempted and landed many jumps before.
But on that fateful day, she hit a jump with too much speed while attempting a backflip and over-rotated, landing on her neck and shoulders in what was the equivalent of falling off of a two-and-a-half story building. The crash resulted in a broken neck.
While there were initial fears Jocelyn would be paralyzed and never walk again, she has made a full recovery and is even skiing again, Jim said, all thanks to the support of not only her parents, but the High Fives Foundation.
Headquartered in Truckee, California, the High Fives Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to providing resources and support to injured athletes and veterans in order to help them get back to their preferred outdoor physical activity, according to the nonprofit’s website.
A portion of the Full Recovery IPA’s sales will be donated to the High Fives Foundation, something Jim has wanted to do for a while.
“In 2015, I told the founder of High Fives, Roy Tuscany, that I had a dream someday of canning and selling this beer to pay back some of the help they gave us,” Jim said.
The success of Timber Patch Brewing over the past four years has finally allowed him to do that.
Despite putting the “micro” in microbrewery — again, with only a single four-barrel fermenter — Jim said he’s been able to brew up over 11,000 gallons of beer since opening.
“This is kind of a hobby for us. We’re both homebrewers and we took it to the next level,” Jim said. “A lot of people said it couldn’t be done. We’re on a real small scale. It’s a ma-and-pa kind of deal.”
Currently, Timber Patch Brewing has 10 different craft beers on tap. The brewery has also worked with another local brewery to make a beer.
“That Timber Springs Double IPA, it’s a collaboration beer we did with Longmire Springs (Brewing) in Packwood,” Jim said.
As for Timber Patch Brewing’s success so far, both Jim and Laurie thanked the East Lewis County community for their support.
“It’s not just the locals, though. We have visitors who come from all over,” Laurie said.
There are two maps on Timber Patch Brewing’s walls, one of the U.S. and one of the world, where visitors can mark their homes with pins.
“There’s only two states I think that aren’t represented so far, North Dakota and Oklahoma,” Jim said.
Additionally, the small Morton brewery has had visitors from South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
Though there is no kitchen, visitors to Timber Patch Brewing can enjoy freshly made pizza thanks to the Mountain View Wood Fired Pizza food trailer parked in front of the brewery.
To learn more about Timber Patch Brewing, visit its Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/283d9bts.
For more information on the High Fives Foundation, visit its website at https://highfivesfoundation.org.
Additionally, to learn more about Jocelyn’s skiing incident and her recovery, watch the High Fives Foundation video featuring her story at https://tinyurl.com/mr36y2zp.
