Otokoyama Sake Brewery 男山酒造 – Man’s Mountain

There are several Otokama brands of sake made across Japan. But the most famous is Hokkai Otokoyama 北海男山. Hokkai, short for Hokkaido, differentiates the brewery from the other Otokoyama 男山 brands. This brewery is arguably Hokkaido’s most famous too– and possibly the biggest name in the North American sake scene. They introduced quality sake (Tokutei meisho-shu 特定名称酒) in the late 1970’s/early ’80s to much of the world and forever changed the market. So yeah– they’re a pretty big deal.

the Tokubetsu Junmai – Otokoyama’s flagship sake

In terms of production, Otokoyama 男山 is large– 10,000+ koku per year. That’s almost 2 million liters of seishu! About half of this is quality tokutei meisho-shu. The brewery needs a lot of water to produce this much sake. Their source is well pulling subterranean meltwater from the Daisetsuzan 大雪山 range. This water is relatively soft.

Despite Otokoyama’s soft water, their sake tends to feature a mineral quality. Most of their products are fairly dry and light, and they often show well chilled or warmed. This flexibility in serving temperature means there is rarely a bad time to serve up some Otokoyama sake!