Falstaff Green

White text on green background with white Falstaff logo surrounded by white shamrocks.

Falstaff Brewing began as the Lemp Brewery by German immigrant John Adam Lemp in St. Louis in 1838. The Lemp Brewery Company closed in 1921 and sold its Falstaff brand to the then-named Griesedieck Beverage Company. Griesedieck Beverage was renamed the Falstaff Corporation and survived Prohibition by selling near beer, soft drinks, and cured hams under the Falstaff name. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the first two cases of beer were airlifted from Curtiss Stienberg Airport to the governors of Illinois and Missouri. After Prohibition, the company expanded greatly. Its first acquisition was the 1936 purchase of the Krug Brewery in Omaha, which made Falstaff the first brewery to operate plants in two different states. By the 1960s, Falstaff had become the third largest brewer in America.