The purpose of this work is to examine the potential of monitoring heavy tar compounds contained in the product gas of a biomass gasifier. The hot product gas from atmospheric indirect bubbling fluidized bed gasification of wood pellets was extracted. The sampling and conditioning system consisted of a high-temperature dilution probe, a primary thermodenuder and a secondary thermodenuder. Online and semi-online instruments were used to characterize the aerosol in terms of number size distribution and particle mass concentration. The fine mode (mobility equivalent diameter db < 150 nm) was found to mainly consist of heavy tar compounds. An Electrical low­pressure impactor (ELPI) was used to measure this mode with a time resolution of 1 second and thus showed the potential for online measurements of heavy tar.