Do hefeweizen style beers (unfiltered wheat beer) have a strong yeasty taste from the sediment?

Answer 1

To the trained tongue, indeed they do. Decent to exceptional wheat beers (found in the U.S. anyway) like Hacker Pschorr, Ayinger, Schneider Aventinus and Weihenstephan Hefeweiss have a distinguishable yeasty flavor. Therefore, it's important that bottled Hefeweizens are poured in a specific way:

With the appropriate hour-glass shaped wheat beer glass, also called a Weizenbier or Weißbier, put the empty glass upside-down on top of the open bottle and flip it. Pull the bottle up gradually as the glass fills. It will leave a considerable head, which is good, as well as leave some foam in the bottle. Spin the bottle back and forth between your open palms to loosen this head and pour it into the glass to top it off. This distributes the yeast strains evenly throughout the beer.