The article above is a fairly decent read discussing some of the history behind Old Tom Gin.
After I had tried Old Tom and then read David Windrichs’ book “IMBIBE!” and before I got into this hobby I have been fascinated with Old Tom Gin. A slightly sweet and aged Gin that had been making a comeback a couple years ago. Obviously the curiosity grew substantially having stumbled down the rabbit hole of home distilling. I’ve looked around the forum and there are some topics discussing Old Tom but I’d like to use this topic as a spring board into my own journey. Hopefully some more experienced hobbyists will throw in their two cents as well. The article above mentions Old Tom as a blend of corn likker and barley likker. I don’t think I’ll head that way at first. I believe I’ll make a sugar shine roughly 90-93% off the plated column and then use that as a base to basically do an aged Odin Gin. Need to find used wine barrel staves for the aging. And I’ll perhaps back sweeten after aging.
I still have some research to do on these fronts.