Wow, very inspiring. I wonder if they would send one with a delivery to the local liquor store. Just curious, how long can you go between fillings and how many fillings do expect to get from the barrel before you deem it a sour barrel? Awesome, have fun Tom. I think I'm going to ask Santa for one of the 'age your own' kits. Looks like fun.
For what it's worth, they sell them on their website and will ship them. When I put in a Portland zip it said it was only $15 to ship, which seems low to me. If you really want one, that is probably the easiest way to go.
I'm not sure how long I can go between fillings. It was empty for ~3 weeks they said, and still water tight, so in that respect it should be fine for a while. But I think a bigger concern is the air in the barrel and any bacteria or wild yeast that may be in there.
I think if I keep it full and am otherwise careful I should be able to get more than 4 fillings out of it before it would go sour. But I have a batch of Flanders on cherries (and Roeselare) right now, so that could get racked to the barrel in a month or three and sour it right.
http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/BourbonVanillaImperialPorter
Thanks D. Maybe I'll serve you some of it in June