Rubber bung instead of Cork for belgian bottle?

I don't have the ability to cork and want to do some wood aging in some 750ml cork top belgian bottles and then bottle prime them after the wood aging.

For both of these processes I was wondering if it's alright to use a small rubber stopper afixed with a wire cage over it? I know that the wood aging part will be fine with a small airlock attached but what about the bung for the bottle priming and conditioning?

With the proper sized rubber stopper and wire cage to hold it down will it properly hold carbonation? Or would the seal not be as good as cork? or maybe I should just use the plastic cork-type stopper with a wire bale?

they do have hand corkers for natural corks that are cheap, $4-7 . i recently corked the plastic corks with the wire cage and they worked well too.

Good to know. So by the plastic corks you mean you used the hand corker or something else to press them in? These are the the translucent white ones?

djbradle said:

Good to know. So by the plastic corks you mean you used the hand corker or something else to press them in? These are the the translucent white ones?

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the plastic corks are the same corks that are used in cheap champagne or sparkling cider, they are translucent. the bottles were all rodenbach, lindemanns, hanssens and other belgian sours so they had all different size holes but the plastic corks were all pressed in by hand, some easier than others.

I don't see why a #3 or 4 rubber stopper soaked in starsan and pressed in tight held with a wire bale wouldn't hold the carb? I mean, that seal cannot possibly be less safe when held tight by the bale? When it is released no doubt the bung will fly without any effort but it seems a cheap alternitive with supplies on hand. The bungs can be re-used as well as the bales.