[RPIScotty]

http://www.brasserielefebvre.be/en/page/28/art-of-serving

Doesn't change the taste!

I find the dregs very easy to avoid in all the Trappist and Abbey beers, Ommegang, Unibroue, etc.

Anecdotally, I pour my Chimay's pretty vigorously, dregs and all. Unlike Rochefort, the Chimay and Westmalle beers bottling yeast doesn't floc as much as the Rochefort and I barely notice I pour it in.

[narvin]

Small Off Topic:
Do you realize that in Belgium people usually drink and like the dregs of trappist beers? It's not like your tipical small local micro that has tons of horrible tasting dregs at the end of the bottle.

Try the following idea next time you drink Chimay or Rochefort: pour 3/4 of the beer and drink it normally. When finished pick the bottle swirl it a little, pour the rest in your glass and drink it. You may find that contrary to normal beers you like these dregs (I do).

I personally did not see that in Belgium.  Sometimes they'll give you a shot of the yeast on the side if you want it.  Someone from Belgium can possibly correct me, but not one of the breweries I visited treated it as a delicacy.  Beer on tap (there's a lot of it, and I'm not talking Jupiler) was sparkling clear much of the time.

[narvin]

Van Honsebrouke:



Silly Saison:



Witbier (Hazy, not yeasty), with beef terrine:



Kriek and Lambic:



De Dolle, aged beers in bottle:

[pmonti80]

Small Off Topic:
Do you realize that in Belgium people usually drink and like the dregs of trappist beers? It's not like your tipical small local micro that has tons of horrible tasting dregs at the end of the bottle.

Try the following idea next time you drink Chimay or Rochefort: pour 3/4 of the beer and drink it normally. When finished pick the bottle swirl it a little, pour the rest in your glass and drink it. You may find that contrary to normal beers you like these dregs (I do).

Um, no.  I've never heard that people in Belgium regularly drink the dregs and frankly I don't care what they do.  It's nasty and I'm not gonna drink it.

I hate the taste of the immense quantity of dregs I have in my homebrews. BUT my father is belgian and he was tought that way to drink trappist beers. I find that there is way less dregs in Chimay that in my beers and they taste good.

[Hand of Dom]

I dug a bottle of Rochefort 8 out of the stash this weekend, and it is definitely murky.  This is not as a result of the yeast getting kicked up when serving, as this remained caked to the bottom of the bottle.  This is exactly how I recall every other time I've had this beer (both served by myself, and in various pubs in Bruges).