It's not a store, they are a wholesaler.
Yeah, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to. I did find a business address in Quebec Province which isn't really along our route, so it's just as well they don't have a store front. Several years ago we were passing through the Yakima Valley region in Washington State and I wanted to visit some hop farms and local suppliers. As luck would have it, most of them were at BrewCon and we didn't get to see much, but one warehouse/shipping outlet in town was open with a skeleton crew, and they did have a small shop on premises.
We didn't buy anything, but I did leave a note for the head honcho, who later got back to me and sent a free sample of one of their latest hop blends. It was called Cluster Fugget, and was apparently something that came out of the packaging room when "somebody" screwed up and dumped in a sizable amount of Cluster, Fuggles and Nugget into the hopper at the same time by mistake instead of just a single hop varietal for packaging. I remember seeing it on their website for a while, but they must have either sold out or disposed of them, never to repeat the error.
Coincidentally, at the same time I was getting ready to bottle an entry of mine (a Pre-Prohibition lager) in a local competition. It was a solid beer, but just lacked a certain 'Oomph' to push it to the top of what I was attempting to do. The main hops I had used were those traditional American varietals from the northern plains: Cluster and Nugget. I figured, "What the Hell," rolled the dice and chucked a couple of ounces in the keg, letting it dry hop for several days, followed by a hard cold crash for about a week.
It cleared nicely and added just the finishing touch it needed. It won Blue Ribbon for Category, which is easier to do in an under-represented style, but then went on to win top honors as my first Best of Show entry. As I already mentioned, I haven't seen that hop or hop blend listed on their website in quite some time, but my hops inventory spreadsheet still says I have a package of it somewhere in my freezer. Might have to brew that bad boy one more time.
