How do you know if a beer is bad?

[chojo]

As a new brewer i'm doing the obligatory woodfordes wherry and after 15 days in the fv i've done 2 gravity checks and it's stable at around 1015 but when i tasted the samples it tastes really bitter and is extremely cloudy. As it stands i would bin it but obviously it needs time to mature i just thought after reading various posts that it may be a little better even though it's young, then it occurred to me that perhaps it's off but having no idea of how it should taste i don't know what to do. Those of you who have made this should it really taste this bad at first?
It's also really pale, i was under the impression that it should be a darker red than it is, am i worrying over nothing or are there definite signs when a beer is off at this stage? My other brews have; even at this early stage tasted like beers the wherry however is just bitter really bitter. What do you guys think?

 

[danb]

my first kit was a wherry and the samples from the fv where not too great and even when primed I didn't think much of it but by 2 weeks it was good and after 4 weeks it was brilliant but gone. give it some time mate.
my first 2 ag brews have been thrown away but that was down to using cheap plastic pins and the taste overpowered the beer and was undrinkable.

 

[StevieDS]

I found this page really helpful for knowing what to look for, or rather what constitutes unwanted flavours :thumb:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter21-2.html

 

[brewtim]

Worse thing for beer is no patience, I know, I suffer from it!

Best thing for beer is to wait a week between each sample, beer gets better week by week, it will surprise you, it can taste awful in the first few weeks and then get better as time passes, it can also take more than 2 weeks to clear post fermentation. So far most of my beers have reached their best from 8 weeks onwards, so don't bin it, keep it going for at least 2 months before possibly deciding to bin it.

I've got a Woodfordes kit stored away somewhere, I must get around to making it one day

 

[chojo]

Thanks for all your help guys.