How do you gauge fermentation length?

So are are saying that with the exception of carbonation, your beer tastes the same after, say, one month as it did at 7 days?

 

If you take a carbonated beer and let all of the CO2 dissipate to create a flat beer, that flat beer will taste significantly different from the carbonated beer. Without carbonation it tastes thin, watery, dull, and lifeless.

Cheers!

 

Right, so what I was really asking, in different words, is... Is the change in taste resulting from carbonation the only change in your beer's taste between 7 days and a month?