Good drinks tell a story, and this is the story of those drinks. Each week, we'll be serving up a remedial cocktail lesson for bartending beginners to help you get the most out of your glass, with recipes, interviews, and histories coming right up.

"I like to go out on my nights off, meet people, try new things." That's Third Rail proprietor and barkeep Jeff Lyon speaking for the vast majority of us. "But if I want to make three stops, putting at least one low proof cocktail in the mix is great." Amen, Jeff. As I've learned, writing about cocktails involves — surprise! — drinking them. If you've been drinking with me, then you too might welcome Lyon's "sessionable" cocktail evangelism.

At his bar, a mixology playground with a rail yard twist in a nod to the history of San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, one discovers an entire section of the menu devoted to low proof, sessionable mixed drinks. Yes, you probably recognize that buzzword because — at least in the past few years — it's become a near-cliché of the beer world. Session brews, intentionally concocted for lower alcohol content to make room for the enjoyment of more of them, are readily available at most corner stores, and it seems like every major craft brewery has its own offering in the category.

Well, argue Lyon and quite a few others, the same is possible in the world of cocktails. "You can get really interesting flavors, great combinations and textures, with an ounce to two-and-a-half ounces of base spirit" he claims, with his drinks offering strong corroboration. Before he left his previous post at Range, he even helped devise a happy hour devoted to them.

One basic formula for synthesizing a low proof cocktail based on something you already like was a tool Lyon employed then: inverting cocktails. Take a Manhattan, for instance. "People think that vermouth is that thing that people don't use that much of in Manhattans," says Lyon, arguing for the inverse, or using mostly vermouth. Hell, he says he drinks vermouth on its own with a bit of citrus, and why not? For cocktails, should base spirits really reign supreme when, say, Sherry can underscore a cocktail just as well as bourbon?

So, to get technical, where does a sessionable cocktail fall in terms of alcohol? "Percentage-wise, about half the proof of a high-proof cocktail." There, Lyon stops himself. "That sounds like I'm being a smart ass. But I mean it. If the end proof of your Manhattan is 30%, a sessionable cocktail will be 15%, just a bit over a glass of wine."

Last, let's be goal-oriented about things. Where some perceive value in their drink's ABV, Lyon has another (added) value to prize: "You can hang out with your friends longer."

Third Rail's Charlie Chaplin
3/4 oz Bonal
3/4 oz Lustau Amontillado sherry
3/4 oz Jelinek Fernet
1 oz Perucchi sweet vermouth
3 dashes Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Decanter bitters

Stir.
Serve on a big ol' ice cube in a double old fashioned glass.
No garnish.

Previously:

Learning To Drink Vol. 1: Shaken Or Stirred?
Learning To Drink Vol. 2: Punch Drunk
Learning To Drink Vol. 3: Bubbly
Learning To Drink Vol. 4: Bitters
Learning To Drink Vol. 5: Sours And Daisies
Learning To Drink Vol. 6: French Brandies
Learning To Drink Vol. 7: Who Is Tom Collins?
Learning To Drink Vol. 8: The Martin(i/ez)
Learning To Drink Vol. 9: Mezcal Y Tequila
Learning To Drink Vol. 10: Call Me Old Fashioned