Today’s beer pick is a first for the Beer Advent Calendar in all of the years I’ve been doing this: Santa Clausthaler, a non-alcoholic beer from Germany’s Radeberger Gruppe that launched in the United States. Why non-alcoholic? To start with, if there’s any year an NA beer should appear on the calendar, it’s 2020, as we could all use some moderation. Also, it’s the only holiday-themed non-alcoholic beer I’m aware of. Finally, it’s really good.

Here’s some background from the press release:

For centuries, Santa Claus has traveled the globe delivering presents on Christmas Eve and the only refreshment offered, year after year, chimney after chimney – has been milk. This year, the tradition changes.

Santa Claus is the hardest working man on the planet who brings joy to millions of people around the world; he deserves to crack open a cold beer every once in a while, but always had to wait until he returned to the North Pole. Imagine how jolly he’ll be now that he can have a cold one while circumnavigating the globe with his trusty reindeer.

A delicious and refreshing limited edition holiday beer, Santa Clausthaler features a crisp and well-balanced taste of Clausthaler Original premium non-alcoholic beer blended with flavors of cranberry and cinnamon.

“We set out to be completely new and innovative and fit in with the darker beers that are commonplace in the winter months,” said Jörg Peter, Global Marketing Director, Radeberger Gruppe. “With the addition of cinnamon and cranberry to Clausthaler Original, we knew we had a perfect holiday brew. We are incredibly proud to launch Santa Clausthaler exclusively in the USA.”

Obviously this isn’t your usual holiday beer, but it’s also not what you’ll expect when you think of non-alcoholic brew. Clausthaler took its base non-alcoholic beer and blended it 50/50 with (what I’m assuming is) a cranberry cinnamon soda—so the end result has a cinnamon-spiced mulled cider aroma, and a gently sweet flavor profile you could describe as cinnamon radler, or perhaps a ginger ale if you swapped the ginger out for cinnamon.

It’s a great option for a break between big beers during the holiday, while still being nicely festive and a good pairing for similarly spiced treats. Cheers!

Find Radeberger Gruppe Santa Clausthaler on:

• Untappd
• BeerAdvocate
• RateBeer
• Facebook

Image credits: Top image, press release materials; others, my own