Little Enrico Opens a New Line Fixed at 2.9 Percent

Manhattan Project has started a low-alcohol line where every beer lands at 2.9 percent, against a core lineup that sits between 5 and 6.2. First out is an Italian Pils called Little Enrico, on draft only and still carrying a working name.

• Style: Italian Pils
• Release Date: 2026-09-28
• ABV: 2.9%
• Manhattan Project Beer Co. (Dallas, TX)

The interesting number on this release is not the one attached to the beer. It is the one attached to everything that follows it.

Manhattan Project Beer Co. has introduced Measured by Manhattan Project, a new line in which every beer will be 2.9 percent ABV. The Dallas brewery makes the comparison itself: most beers land somewhere around 5 to 7 percent. Its own current lineup bears that out, running from Cold War at 5 percent up to the Half-Life hazy IPA at 6.2.

The first beer in the line is an Italian Pils called Little Enrico. It is pouring in the brewery's beer garden now.

The brewery's stated reasoning is straightforward. Measured is meant for the times you want something lower in alcohol but still care just as much about what is in your glass - a long afternoon outside, the brewery suggests, when you would like to stay for another round. It is a session-beer argument, but built as a standing program rather than a one-off summer release.

Italian Pils is a well-chosen style for that case. It is a relatively modern German-pilsner variant popularised by Italian brewers, and it is defined by dryness and a firm hop aromatic rather than by weight. Its whole character comes from crispness and bitterness, both of which survive a low ABV better than body or malt sweetness do. Manhattan Project has not published a hop bill or tasting notes yet.

Two caveats are worth stating plainly, because the brewery states them plainly too. Little Enrico is a working name, so the beer may not keep it. Packaging is still being figured out, which makes this draft-only and taproom-only for now.

The naming does fit, though. The brewery takes its identity from the Manhattan Project, and Enrico Fermi was the physicist who built the first sustained nuclear chain reaction. The diminutive is doing the work.

A second beer in the line, an ale, is already confirmed as next. Little Enrico is available now on draft at Manhattan Project Beer Co. on Sulphur Street in Dallas.