The short answer
Festive alcohol-free beer is thin on the ground this year. When Unhopped checked the UK’s specialist shops, the supermarkets and more than a dozen breweries that make alcohol-free beer on 13 October 2026, two Christmas releases were on sale: M&S Alcohol Free Winter Ale and Lervig’s spiced No Worries Driving Home for Christmas. For the rest of December, the beers that suit Christmas best are dark and rich. Our pick is Mash Gang Lesser Evil Stout, a cherry chocolate stout that scores 8.5 in our reviews.
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Christmas beer is an old tradition: strong, dark, often spiced, and built to warm you up. Alcohol-free brewers have a harder job, because so much of that warmth comes from the alcohol. The good ones lean on what’s left: roasted malt, chocolate, cherry, vanilla and spice.
This guide does two things. It lists every festive alcohol-free beer we could find on sale for Christmas 2026, and then it picks ten beers from Unhopped’s reviews that do the job just as well. If you’re buying for someone, our guide to alcohol-free advent calendars has every calendar on sale this year, and you can build your own with a dark-beer twelve.
Is there an alcohol-free Christmas beer this year?
Yes, but only a couple, and neither is easy to find. We searched Wise Bartender, Dry Drinker and Beerhunter, the big supermarkets, and the shops of breweries that make alcohol-free beer, including Big Drop, Nirvana, Mash Gang, Lucky Saint, Jump Ship, Infinite Session, Impossibrew, Days, Northern Monk, Thornbridge, Adnams, St Peter’s, BrewDog, Heaps Normal, Vault City and Mikkeller. These are the festive beers we found, at 0.5% ABV or below. We haven’t reviewed any of them yet, so they carry no score.
On sale: the supermarket one
M&S Alcohol Free Winter Ale
£1.75 £2.00 500ml bottle Ocado offer to 3 November
M&S describes a “warming, alcohol-free ale” brewed “with dark malty grains for depth”, festive and fruity, and suggests it with spicy snacks, roasted nuts or strong cheese. The Ocado listing marks it as suitable for vegans and gives the ABV as 0.5.
It’s the only festive alcohol-free beer we found from a supermarket. The £1.75 price is an Ocado offer on orders placed by 3 November.
M&S’s own product page was live but showed no price when we checked, so Ocado is the reliable place to buy it.
On sale, but hard to find: the spiced one
Lervig No Worries Driving Home for Christmas
£14.94 Six cans at Dry Drinker Back soon 0.5%
A seasonal in Lervig’s No Worries range, from Norway. Lervig’s other No Worries beers score 8.0 to 8.5 in our reviews. Dry Drinker describes it as rich, malty and spiced, with dark roasted malts, wheat, barley and cinnamon.
Dry Drinker had it as “back soon” on 13 October 2026. Beer Merchants, which lists it as “Driving Home for Xmas”, had it in stock in 33cl.
More from the same brewery: Lervig No Worries Grapefruit IPA and Lervig No Worries IPA both score 8.4 or more with us.
Coming back: the hoppy one
Lowlander Winter IPA
Back soon 330ml bottle Dry Drinker
A seasonal amber IPA from the Dutch brewery Lowlander. Dry Drinker describes citrus, pine and warming spice, and suggests it with festive dishes.
Dry Drinker had it as “back soon” on 13 October 2026, with no date. If it returns, it’s the one for a hop fan who doesn’t want a stout.
Nothing else festive turned up. None of the breweries we checked had a 2026 Christmas beer on sale, and we found nothing seasonal from Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Aldi or Lidl. If one appears before December, we’ll add it here.
Christmas packs with alcohol-free beer
The retailers have put their festive effort into packs rather than beers. Three are worth knowing about:
- Wise Bartender’s Twelve Beers of Christmas (£42.50): alcohol-free beers at 0.0% to 0.5%, from lagers to stouts, with nuts and chocolate. The beers aren’t named and change with stock. See the pack
- Jump Ship’s gift box (£29.99): seven named beers, including Yardarm, Stoker’s Stout and Flying Colours, with a tasting glass and a snack. See it at Jump Ship.
- Beerhunter’s Hoppy Christmas box (£32.95): eight beers and a glass. Beerhunter calls them “low and alcohol-free beers” and doesn’t list ABVs, so not every beer is guaranteed to be 0.5% or below. See it at Beerhunter.
For a countdown instead, the alcohol-free advent calendars start at £34.95 for twelve doors. More boxed presents are in our alcohol-free beer gift sets guide.
The best alcohol-free beers for Christmas: ten from our reviews
These are the beers we’d put on the table this December. Every one has been scored in Unhopped’s reviews, and every one was in stock at the retailer linked when we checked on 13 October 2026. Most are dark, because that’s where the Christmas flavours live, but there’s cherry, Belgian spice and amber malt here too.
Our Christmas pick
Stout · 0.5% · scored 8.5 in our reviews
A cherry chocolate stout brewed with oats, cacao, vanilla and cherry concentrate. Mash Gang promises “velvety dark chocolate, sweet and sour cherry, vanilla, and creamy oats”, which on paper is Black Forest gateau territory. It scores 8.5 in our reviews, it’s vegan, and Mash Gang sells it in four-packs of 440ml cans from its own shop.
The best stout on sale
Stout · 0.5% · scored 8.6 in our reviews
Our highest-scoring stout that’s still on sale, at 8.6: roasted coffee, dark chocolate and sweet cream, and Big Drop bills it as gold-medal-winning. It’s the one we put behind door 24 of both our homemade advent calendars.
For the cheeseboard
Stout · 0.5% · scored 8.4 in our reviews
A stout dry-hopped with Columbus and Simcoe, so the chocolate and coffee come with citrus and pine. Our review pairs it with Stilton, which makes it a natural for the end of Christmas dinner.
The 0.0% one
Stout · 0.0% · scored 8.0 in our reviews
Theakston’s alcohol-free dark ale, at 0.0% and in a 500ml bottle. Our review matches it with fruit cake, Sunday roast and steak pie, which covers most of December.
For pudding
Stout · <0.5% · scored 8.2 in our reviews
A stout Jump Ship calls award-winning: roasted coffee, dark chocolate and a hint of vanilla, with a dry finish. Our review lists sticky toffee pudding, smoked salmon and the cheeseboard as matches.
The cherry one
Wheat Beer · 0.4% · scored 8.1 in our reviews
A Belgian cherry beer: tart, fruity and dry. Our review suggests dark chocolate and roast duck, and it’s a brighter alternative to stout for anyone who finds dark beer heavy.
The Belgian one
Wheat Beer · 0.4% · scored 8.1 in our reviews
Chouffe’s gnome, without the alcohol: a Belgian blonde with fruity esters and gentle spice. Our review suggests roast dinners and creamy cheese, so it’s an easy beer to put on the Christmas table.
The amber one
Amber Ale · <0.5% · scored 8.2 in our reviews
An amber ale with toffee and biscuit malt and a clean bitterness, brewed with British hops. It sits between a lager and a stout, which makes it the safe choice for a mixed table.
The familiar one
Stout · 0.0% · scored 8.1 in our reviews
Roasted malt, a creamy head and a bittersweet finish, in a pint can. If the person you’re buying for drinks Guinness, there’s also a Guinness 0.0 advent calendar: it’s in our calendar guide.
The smoky one
Stout · 0.5% · scored 8.3 in our reviews
Brewed with smoked malt, with “notes of espresso, smoke, and dark chocolate” in Drop Bear’s words. It’s vegan and labelled gluten-free. Wise Bartender had sold out when we checked; Dry Drinker had it in six-packs.
Planning the meal itself? Our guide to alcohol-free beer with Christmas dinner goes course by course, from smoked salmon to the cheeseboard.
Ten Christmas beers at a glance
Unhopped’s Christmas beers: scores from our reviews, prices checked 13 October 2026.| Beer | Style | ABV | Score | Price and where |
|---|
| Mash Gang Lesser Evil Stout | Stout | 0.5% | 8.5 | £11.99 for four, Mash Gang |
|---|
| Big Drop Galactic Milk Stout | Stout | 0.5% | 8.6 | £3.00 each, Wise Bartender |
|---|
| Brulo Cascadian Tides Stout | Stout | 0.5% | 8.4 | £3.40 each, Wise Bartender |
|---|
| Theakston Nowt Peculier | Stout | 0.0% | 8.0 | £3.50 each, Wise Bartender |
|---|
| Jump Ship Stoker’s Stout | Stout | <0.5% | 8.2 | £2.90 each, Wise Bartender |
|---|
| Force Majeure Kriek | Wheat Beer | 0.4% | 8.1 | £19.50 for six, Dry Drinker |
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| Chouffe Belgian Blonde | Wheat Beer | 0.4% | 8.1 | £3.60 each, Wise Bartender |
|---|
| Jump Ship Flying Colours Amber Ale | Amber Ale | <0.5% | 8.2 | £4.00 each, Wise Bartender |
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| Guinness 0.0 | Stout | 0.0% | 8.1 | £3.20 each, Wise Bartender |
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| Drop Bear Bonfire Stout | Stout | 0.5% | 8.3 | £13.87 for six, Dry Drinker |
|---|
Want more of the dark stuff? Our ranking of alcohol-free stouts covers every stout we’ve reviewed, and Guinness 0.0 versus Galactic settles the obvious argument.
Questions people ask
Is there an alcohol-free Christmas ale?
Two, and they take some finding. On 13 October 2026, Unhopped found M&S Alcohol Free Winter Ale on sale at Ocado (£1.75 to 3 November), and Lervig’s spiced No Worries Driving Home for Christmas at Beer Merchants. Dry Drinker listed No Worries Driving Home for Christmas and Lowlander Winter IPA as back soon.
What is the best alcohol-free beer for Christmas?
Unhopped’s pick is Mash Gang Lesser Evil, a 0.5% cherry chocolate stout that scores 8.5 in our reviews. Big Drop Galactic Milk Stout scores higher, at 8.6, and is the better buy if you want a classic stout.
Is M&S Alcohol Free Winter Ale vegan?
The Ocado listing for M&S Alcohol Free Winter Ale marks it as suitable for vegans. It comes in a 500ml bottle and is listed at 0.5 ABV.
Do alcohol-free advent calendars include Christmas beers?
Sometimes. Wise Bartender says its alcohol-free beer calendar includes some seasonal brews, but none of the 2026 mixed beer calendars names its beers. To choose them yourself, see our guide to making an alcohol-free beer advent calendar, which includes a dark and wintry twelve.
More for an alcohol-free December
How we put this guide together. We searched the websites of the UK’s specialist alcohol-free retailers, Ocado and the big supermarkets, and the online shops of the alcohol-free breweries named above, on 13 October 2026. We couldn’t reach Drop Bear’s or Brulo’s own shops. Scores are from Unhopped’s own beer reviews; descriptions in quotation marks are the brewer’s or retailer’s. Prices and stock change often. Spotted something we missed? Tell us.
