In 1838 Adam Lemp, formerly of Eschwege Germany, arrived in St. Louis and established a grocery store in St. Louis, MO. The wild and wooly fur trading port established by the French at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers had become the gateway to the West, a jumping off point for settlers to stock up on supplies before heading into the wilds of the Louisiana Territory, included in their supplies were kegs of ale, the English style brew being the only malt beverage available in the New World.
Back in Germany, where the Lemps were brewers by birth, larger beer was the main product. Until Adam Lemp arrived in America, larger was a stolen pleasure unavailable in the Western hemisphere. The Magical Teutonic yeast that made the brewing of larger possible is more fragile than the strain used for heavier British Ales, and it was Adam Lemp who first “brought it back alive”
Adam Lemp started brewing larger beer behind his grocery store and it was an instant hit. Larger is lighter snappier and more effervescent than Ale, and it became so popular that in 1840 Lemp built a stone brew house near the St. Louis Riverfront approximately where the southern leg of the Gateway Arch now stands.
He discovered, much to his delight, that underground St. Louis was honeycombed with prehistoric caves. Their consistently cool temperatures was an ideal environment for largering beer. He found an entrance to a particular large system of caverns near the intersection of what is today Cherokee Street and Demeil Place. Lemp’s mastery of the brewer’s craft soon enabled Lemp St. Louis larger to “take over the town.”
After Adam Lemp passed away his son, William Lemp, built a new brewery over the Cherokee Cave and embarked on an expansion program that positioned Lemp as America’s first nationally distributed beer.
Lemp built distribution depots from coast to coast and shipped his now famous lager in refrigerated railroad cars. Lemp set the standard for larger beer in America, winning both gold medals both here and abroad.
Since 90% of the beer brewed in America is larger, Adam Lemp is truly the father of the Modern American Brewing industry. His original copper brew kettle, a priceless curio of the history of brewing, survives to this day as one of the prized possessions of the Missouri Historical Society. For more information on Lemp and its importance in the history of American Brewing, visit:

Lemp’s Resurrection

In 2004 the pioneering spirit of Lemp’s Larger was reborn in the brewing of a traditional amber larger crafted to exacting specifications by the century old lion brewer of Wilkes- Barre, PA based in St. Louis the new Lemp brewing company selected Lion for it’s stellar reputation as a gold medal winner at the great American beer festival. To learn more about the lion brewery visit: www.lionbrewery.com

2005 marked the introduction of a truly extravagant beer: Lemp Jurassic Dark, roasted German Style Wheat Ale. Produced by the O’Fallon Brewery in O’Fallon, MO (suburban St. Louis), Missouri, it is painstakingly crafted in small batches of approximately 200 cases per run. Like Lion, O’Fallon is a medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival. To learn more about the O’Fallon Brewery visit: www.O’fallonbrewery.com