diff --git a/Valet.podspec b/Valet.podspec
index 4f6d4f0c..e9a51c1c 100644
--- a/Valet.podspec
+++ b/Valet.podspec
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Pod::Spec.new do |s|
   s.name     = 'Valet'
-  s.version  = '1.1.0'
+  s.version  = '1.1.1'
   s.license  = 'Apache'
   s.summary  = 'Valet lets you securely store data in the iOS or OS X Keychain without knowing a thing about how the Keychain works. It\'s easy. We promise.'
   s.homepage = 'https://github.com/square/Valet'
diff --git a/Valet/VALValet.m b/Valet/VALValet.m
index ad80dcbb..1f227c4d 100644
--- a/Valet/VALValet.m
+++ b/Valet/VALValet.m
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ - (BOOL)canAccessKeychain;
     
     NSMutableDictionary *query = [self.baseQuery mutableCopy];
     [query addEntriesFromDictionary:[self _secItemFormatDictionaryWithKey:canaryKey]];
-    [query addEntriesFromDictionary:@{ (__bridge id)kSecValueData : canaryValue }];
+    [query addEntriesFromDictionary:@{ (__bridge id)kSecValueData : [canaryValue dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] }];
     
     OSStatus status = VALAtomicSecItemAdd((__bridge CFDictionaryRef)query, NULL);
     return (status != errSecInteractionNotAllowed && status != errSecNotAvailable);