How to make an alcohol-free beer advent calendar, with four line-ups priced

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A bought calendar keeps the surprise. A homemade one lets you choose every door, leave out anything they wouldn’t drink and see the whole bill before you pay it. It also solves the one real problem with this year’s ready-made beer calendars: apart from a twelve-can Guinness 0.0 box, none of them names its beers or promises 0.0% behind every door.

So we’ve done the choosing. Below are four line-ups: a 24-door calendar you can buy in a single order, and three twelve-door ones for a 0.0% drinker, a lager drinker and someone who likes it dark. All but two of the beers have been scored in Unhopped’s reviews, and every price comes from the retailer’s own listing on 13 October 2026. If you’d rather buy one ready-made, our guide to alcohol-free advent calendars compares every one on sale this year.

• What it costs
• The one-order 24
• Three twelve-door calendars
• Step by step
• Door tags
• Questions

Is it cheaper to make your own beer advent calendar?

A little, if you buy single cans. Our one-order 24 below costs £74.50 at Wise Bartender, or £3.10 a door, and that clears its free-delivery threshold. The three ready-made 24-door calendars cost £3.33 to £3.75 a door. The saving is small. What you’re really paying for is knowing what’s behind every door.

The one-order 24: every beer from Wise Bartender

Wise Bartender sells its beers as single cans and bottles (every one we priced was sold singly), which makes it the easiest place to build a calendar in one go. These are 24 of the highest-scoring beers in our reviews that it had in stock on 13 October 2026, arranged so the style changes every day and Christmas Eve gets Big Drop Galactic Milk Stout, our top-rated stout that’s still on sale. Their average score is 8.3 out of 10.

1. Lucky Saint Unfiltered LagerLager · 8.7 · £3.30
2. Lervig No Worries Grapefruit IPAIPA · 8.5 · £2.60
3. vandeStreek Bumper BlondPale Ale · 8.0 · £2.90
4. Guinness 0.0Stout · 8.1 · £3.20
5. Big Drop Pine Trail Pale AlePale Ale · 8.5 · £3.00
6. Jump Ship Yardarm LagerLager · 8.1 · £2.90
7. Mikkeller Weird Weather Hazy IPAHazy IPA · 8.5 · £4.10
8. Brulo 5 Fruit GoseWheat Beer · 8.3 · £3.40
9. Jump Ship Flying Colours Amber AleAmber Ale · 8.2 · £4.00
10. Beavertown Lazer CrushIPA · 8.5 · £2.80
11. Jump Ship Stoker’s StoutStout · 8.2 · £2.90
12. Lervig No Worries Mango Pale AlePale Ale · 8.3 · £2.60
13. Athletic Brewing LagerLager · 8.2 · £3.00
14. Chouffe Belgian BlondeWheat Beer · 8.1 · £3.60
15. Big Drop Paradiso Citra Pale AlePale Ale · 8.2 · £3.00
16. Theakston Nowt PeculierStout · 8.0 · £3.50
17. Nirvana West Coast IPAIPA · 8.1 · £2.50
18. Rothaus Hefe WeizenWheat Beer · 8.1 · £3.00
19. Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5%Pale Ale · 8.0 · £2.80
20. Brulo Cascadian Tides StoutStout · 8.4 · £3.40
21. Lervig No Worries IPAIPA · 8.4 · £2.60
22. Athletic Brewing Upside DawnPale Ale · 8.5 · £3.00
23. Brulo Lust for Life DDH IPAIPA · 8.6 · £3.40
24. Big Drop Galactic Milk StoutStout · 8.6 · £3.00

Total: £74.50 for 24 beers, delivered free. Three of them are bigger than a can: Nowt Peculier and Rothaus come in 500ml bottles and Guinness 0.0 in a pint can. If anything has sold out by the time you order, swap it for another beer of the same style: each door links to our review, and every review links to more like it.

Wondering how this compares with the ready-made 24 in our calendar guide? That one is drawn from high scorers across the whole site, wherever they’re sold. This one trades a few of them for the convenience of a single order. See our other 24-door calendar.

Three twelve-door calendars

Twelve doors suit someone who would rather have a beer every other evening, or a countdown that starts on 13 December. Each of these has a theme, and each total is what the beers cost on 13 October 2026.

Why only twelve 0.0% doors? Of the 227 beers in Unhopped’s directory, 47 are 0.0%, and 38 of those are lagers, most of them from the big brands. These are twelve 0.0% beers that score 7 or more in our reviews and were in stock when we checked. Our guide to the best 0.0% beers has the full field, and 0.0% versus 0.5% explains the difference.

How to make it, step by step

1. Pick a line-up. Use one of ours as it stands, or swap in their favourites. Buying for someone whose taste you don’t know? Our Beer Finder narrows it down in five questions, and the Crate Builder fills a twelve-beer crate from a theme or your own picks.
2. Order by mid-November. Wise Bartender and Dry Drinker both quote a few working days for delivery, but December post is slow and favourite beers sell out. Aim to have every can in the house by the last week of November.
3. Wrap and number. Brown paper and a marker pen do the job. Wrap each can before you number it and the person opening it won’t know what’s coming. Or tie on the door tags below with string.
4. Allow for the big ones. A few of these come in 500ml bottles or pint cans, so leave room in the box, or give them the weekend doors.
5. Keep them cool and dark, and put tomorrow’s beer in the fridge when you take today’s out.

Buying for someone new to alcohol-free beer? A homemade calendar is also a quiet way to find out which styles they like before you buy a whole case. Whatever survives December, our Dry January beer guide picks up the story.

Printable advent calendar door tags

Twenty-four tags, one for each door, with a line to write the beer on if you’d like the recipient to know. Print them on card, cut them out and punch the hole, then tie one round the neck of each bottle or tape it to the wrapping.

• 1December
• 2December
• 3December
• 4December
• 5December
• 6December
• 7December
• 8December
• 9December
• 10December
• 11December
• 12December
• 13December
• 14December
• 15December
• 16December
• 17December
• 18December
• 19December
• 20December
• 21December
• 22December
• 23December
• 24December

Questions people ask

How we put this guide together. Scores are from Unhopped’s own beer reviews. Prices and stock were read from Wise Bartender’s, Dry Drinker’s and Mash Gang’s own product listings on 13 October 2026; Wise Bartender’s prices are for single cans and bottles, Dry Drinker’s for its smallest case. Prices and stock change often, especially in December. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.