Goose, I'm stopping by the Grape & Granary later today and I'll ask if there's an update. I see on their website that the Vine n Hop Shop in Brunswick (303 at I-71) has it in stock. (And they offer AHA discounts!) If it's a Wyeast production problem, that's a big problem, isn't that still the house strain at Great Lakes?
UPDATE
So I had noticed that Grape & Granary had been out of stock on most White Labs and some Wyeast strains for quite some time. They say that both companies had "propagation issues." They still can't get 1028 (among other yeasts and other cultures) from Wyeast but some things appear to be coming through. I just got a 1318 with a production date of Oct. 4. I'd guess any 1028 you find out there won't be very fresh. (BTW I don't think a distributor is involved, they get it shipped right from the labs.) Haven't looked on the labs' websites to see if they are acknowledging a problem and giving updates.