🎄 J-Day: a guide to the big night of the Danish Christmas brew

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What is J-Day, when is it, where does the Christmas truck stop, and what is ØJ-dag? Everything about the Christmas brew's Friday in November in Denmark.

The next J-Day is Friday 6 November 2026. The Christmas brew hits the bars at 20:59.

How we collected the bars: We have collected the bars that have announced that they celebrate J-Day or ØJ-dag, and marked the places that say they will get a visit from the Christmas truck – as tradition demands. We keep it updated from the official channels as news comes in. Know a place we are missing? You can report it from the place's page on the map.

What is J-Day?

J-Day (in Danish J-dag) is the evening when the Christmas brew – popularly known as the "snow beer" – is released. It falls on the first Friday of November every year, and the beer is released at 20:59 (8:59 pm). The tradition began in 1990 and has since become one of the best-known beer nights in Denmark: bars and pubs fill up, Santa hats appear, and Christmas trucks drive around to the bars with the first Christmas brews.

For many Danes, J-Day marks the start of the Christmas season – with Christmas lunches, Christmas beers from large and small breweries, and mulled wine at the weekends in the run-up to Christmas.

The Christmas truck

On the night itself, the Christmas trucks drive around to selected bars in the larger cities. Where and when they stop is usually announced shortly before J-Day.

As soon as the routes are known, we mark the places with a truck on the map in Bieremon and create a J-Day route for each city.

The elves and the J-Train

The brewery sends Christmas elves (nisser) around to the bars on the night – and this year also water elves handing out non-alcoholic soft drinks, so you can switch between Christmas brew and something without alcohol. The classic blue elf hats are joined by zebra-striped ones: the stripes are a nod to "zebra striping", alternating between drinks with and without alcohol through the evening. The official elf route with all the bars is in the brewery's Facebook event – the bars are marked with 🎅 on their page here in Bieremon.

Together with DSB, the Danish railways, the brewery also runs Line J: a Christmas-decorated comedy train on the A line of the Copenhagen S-train with stand-up on board. The train leaves Hundige at 18:07, Copenhagen Central Station at 18:33 and reaches Hillerød at about 19:10. It returns from Hillerød at 19:31, is at Copenhagen Central Station at 20:14 and in Køge at 20:58 – just in time for the Christmas brew. Seats in the comedy carriage are drawn by lot among those who sign up (18+). Night Ravens (Natteravne and Unge Ravne) volunteers will be at Lyngby, Nørreport, København Syd and Køge stations. Read more about the J-Train and the elves (in Danish).

Bars celebrating J-Day

Many bars throw a party on J-Day with music, Santa hats and Christmas brew from the moment it is released. The bars we know of are marked with a snowflake ❄️ on the map – with the time the party starts, if we know it.

In cities with several J-Day bars there is a route that goes from bar to bar:

More breweries celebrate J-Day

J-Day started as the launch of a single Christmas brew, but today several breweries join in on the night. Royal Unibrew releases its own Christmas beers the same evening – including Royal X-Mas and Christmas brew from Albani, among them Blålys – and has a Craft J-Day concept for bars and restaurants focusing on specialty and craft Christmas beers, for example from Anarkist. In many places, the breweries' Santas and elves drop by and hand out Christmas beer when the snow falls – at universities and Friday bars too.

So J-Day is not just about one beer: try a tasting glass of several Christmas beers and rate them in Bieremon – then everyone knows which ones are worth going for.

ØJ-dag – the microbreweries' answer

J-Day is about the big breweries' Christmas beers, but the small breweries have their own tradition: ØJ-dag is held on the Thursday before J-Day, when beer bars all over the country tap Christmas beers from microbreweries. The bars celebrating ØJ-dag are marked with a ninja 🥷 on the map.

🥷 ØJ-dag-ruten København – Tyvstart på julejagten: følg Ninja-barerne i København på ØJ-dag – mikrobryggeriernes svar på J-dag, torsdagen før J-dag.

Christmas beer in Bieremon

From the day before J-Day until Epiphany (6 January), Bieremon goes into Christmas mode. You can catch Christmas beers that count in a special Christmas leaderboard, open doors in the Advent calendar and collect Christmas badges. The microbreweries' Christmas beers can be caught from the start of the season, while J-Day beers – the big breweries' Christmas beers released on J-Day – only count from J-Day at 20:59. If you catch them earlier, they don't count. The season ends 7 January 2027.

Tips for J-Day

Plan your evening. Find the bars you want to visit and when the truck comes by – but expect queues and full bars.
Eat before you go out, and drink water in between. It's a long night.
Try something new. J-Day is a great chance to taste Christmas beers from several breweries – a tasting glass of each gives you more of an experience than lots of the same.
Get home safely. Leave the car at home and agree beforehand how you will get home.

Read more tips in the guides Drink responsibly and on planning a bar crawl in Beer routes (both in Danish).