People think of Bamberg, Germany, as the capital of smoked beer—however, if measured by the number brewers, there is a locality that massively outranks Bamberg, even if few beer lovers have heard of it.
That locality is the rural county of Stjørdal, in central Norway. The area boasts more than 400 brewers of smoked beer. That’s an indication of a strong tradition, even if only one of those brewers actually sells his own beer.
Back when the farmers brewed their own beer, they all used their own grain. That meant that as long as they had enough grain left over to eat, the beer was effectively free. The downside was that they had to malt their own grains, which they did in a number of different ways.