Osuzuyama Distillery Rethinks What “Blended” Means

Not Grain, but Koji — Osuzuyama Distillery Rethinks What “Blended” Means

Blended whisky is traditionally made by combining malt whisky with grain whisky. But 26 Twenty-Six, produced by Osuzuyama Distillery in Miyazaki Prefecture, quietly reimagines that familiar formula. Instead of grain whisky, it places a house-distilled spirit made from koji into a role that grain would normally fill. The result is an entirely different grammar of distillation, deeply rooted in generations of shochu-making expertise.

A Distillery Deep in the Forest

Osuzuyama Distillery is owned by Kuroki Honten, a shochu producer founded in 1885. Best known for barley shochu such as Hyakunen no Kodoku (“One Hundred Years of Solitude”), it is one of Miyazaki’s most respected distilleries.
In 1998, Kuroki Honten established Osuzuyama Distillery deep in the mountains of Miyazaki. Its founder, the late Toshiyuki Kuroki, was inspired by a visit to Scotland’s Edradour Distillery and deliberately chose to build his distillery far from towns and cities. His guiding philosophy was simple: “Made only here, because it can only be made here.” Originally dedicated to shochu brands such as Yamaneko and Yamazaru, the distillery entered whisky production in November 2019. Today, that same conviction is carried forward by fifth-generation owner Shinsaku Kuroki, who studied winemaking in France before returning home.

From Field to Final Drop

At Osuzuyama, whisky begins long before the still.
The starting point is the field. Through its affiliated agricultural company, Yomigaeru Daichi no Kai (“The Reviving Earth Association”), Kuroki Honten grows many of the grains used in both its shochu and whisky. Among the barley varieties cultivated for whisky are Harushizuku and Haruka Nijo.
That barley is then malted by hand.
While modern malt production has largely become mechanized in pursuit of efficiency, Osuzuyama brings the same craftsmanship cultivated through generations of koji-making into the process of germinating barley. Farming, malting, fermentation, and distillation all remain within reach of the people who make them. That continuity forms the backbone of the distillery.

Koji as a Second Spirit

The production process itself is equally distinctive.
Fermentation takes place in traditional wooden vats made from Miyazaki cedar. The first distillation is carried out in a stainless-steel still originally designed for shochu before the spirit moves into copper pot stills for its second distillation. Equipment and expertise developed through decades of shochu production now serve as the foundation of Osuzuyama’s whisky.
The true distinction of 26 Twenty-Six emerges in the blend itself.
Alongside the distillery’s own malt whisky, Osuzuyama blends in a house-made spirit distilled from koji. This is the heart of the whisky. Where conventional blended whisky is built upon the relationship between malt and grain, 26 introduces something uniquely Japanese into that structure: the culture of fermentation embodied by koji.
The whisky matures in American oak alongside Japanese chestnut casks. Gentle sweetness from the wood combines with the rounded texture contributed by the koji spirit, adding another dimension to the structure of the malt whisky. Rather than simply following Scottish tradition, Osuzuyama brings the accumulated knowledge of a shochu distillery—its understanding of fermentation and distillation—into whisky itself.

Built Upon Time Spent Making Shochu

For Osuzuyama, whisky is neither a rejection of shochu nor an imitation of Scotch.
It is an attempt to build a new kind of Japanese distilled spirit upon everything learned through shochu: fermenting rice and barley with koji, carefully tending fermentation in wooden vats, understanding mountain water, and treating agriculture and distillation as one continuous craft.
The years invested in making shochu continue their journey inside the cask.
That is what gives Osuzuyama’s whisky its meaning.

Miyazaki’s Water and Rain

Near the headwaters of the Omaru River, at the foot of Mount Osuzu, springs emerge with exceptionally soft water measuring just 7.5 on the hardness scale. The surrounding mountains receive roughly 3,000 millimeters of rainfall each year, creating a landscape defined by abundant water.
The rain nourishes the forests. The forests store the water. That water is then used to wash the grain and begin fermentation.
26 Twenty-Six is bottled at 43% ABV, and its label simply lists “malt” and “spirits” as its ingredients.
Yet behind those few words lies the long history of Kuroki Honten’s shochu-making tradition and the memory of the forests surrounding Osuzuyama.
What, after all, truly gives meaning to a “blend”?
Osuzuyama Distillery answers that question not with grain, but with koji.
Everything that makes 26 Twenty-Six begins there.

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This article is intended solely to explore the distillation techniques and cultural heritage of Osuzuyama Distillery and the “26 Twenty-Six” brand, and does not aim to promote or encourage the consumption of alcohol. / บทความนี้จัดทำขึ้นเพื่อนำเสนอข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับเทคนิคการกลั่นและมรดกทางวัฒนธรรมของโรงกลั่น Osuzuyama และแบรนด์ “26 Twenty-Six” เท่านั้น มิได้มีเจตนาเพื่อส่งเสริมหรือโฆษณาเครื่องดื่มแอลกอฮอล์ สำหรับผู้มีอายุ 20 ปีขึ้นไป โปรดดื่มอย่างรับผิดชอบ

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Related Articles

“Koji Whisky” / “Sakurao and Togouchi, The Elegance of Twin Terroirs” / “When Koji Returns” / “Defining “Authentic Japanese Whisky””

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Related Product(s)

OSUZUYAMA 26 Twenty-Six