In the 1920s, because of Prohibition, the brewery´s business was soon ruined, and the company was unable to produce a profitable new product to survive. As a result, Lemp was forced to close the plant and liquidate the assets. International Shoe Company purchased almost the entire brewery at auction on June 28, 1922 for $588,000. It had an estimated value of $7 million in the years immediately before Prohibition. Lemp also sold the Falstaff trademark to Joseph Griesedieck for $25,000.

The failure of the business affected him so much that he, like his father and other relatives, committed suicide. [Final Resting Place, p. 94, http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/lemp1.shtml]