diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 85bae558..b88cec9f 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
 * Log request processing errors
 
+* Always enable content encoding if encoding explicitly selected
+
 * Allow multiple Applications on a single server with different state #49
 
 * CORS middleware: allowed_headers is defaulting to None #50
diff --git a/src/httpresponse.rs b/src/httpresponse.rs
index 0293ee32..10f13687 100644
--- a/src/httpresponse.rs
+++ b/src/httpresponse.rs
@@ -164,8 +164,8 @@ impl HttpResponse {
 
     /// Content encoding
     #[inline]
-    pub fn content_encoding(&self) -> &ContentEncoding {
-        &self.get_ref().encoding
+    pub fn content_encoding(&self) -> ContentEncoding {
+        self.get_ref().encoding
     }
 
     /// Set content encoding
@@ -812,11 +812,11 @@ mod tests {
     #[test]
     fn test_content_encoding() {
         let resp = HttpResponse::build(StatusCode::OK).finish().unwrap();
-        assert_eq!(*resp.content_encoding(), ContentEncoding::Auto);
+        assert_eq!(resp.content_encoding(), ContentEncoding::Auto);
 
         let resp = HttpResponse::build(StatusCode::OK)
             .content_encoding(ContentEncoding::Br).finish().unwrap();
-        assert_eq!(*resp.content_encoding(), ContentEncoding::Br);
+        assert_eq!(resp.content_encoding(), ContentEncoding::Br);
     }
 
     #[test]
diff --git a/src/server/encoding.rs b/src/server/encoding.rs
index 98ff0c33..b5213efd 100644
--- a/src/server/encoding.rs
+++ b/src/server/encoding.rs
@@ -346,15 +346,17 @@ impl PayloadEncoder {
     pub fn new(buf: SharedBytes, req: &HttpMessage, resp: &mut HttpResponse) -> PayloadEncoder {
         let version = resp.version().unwrap_or_else(|| req.version);
         let mut body = resp.replace_body(Body::Empty);
+        let response_encoding = resp.content_encoding();
         let has_body = match body {
             Body::Empty => false,
-            Body::Binary(ref bin) => bin.len() >= 96,
+            Body::Binary(ref bin) =>
+                !(response_encoding == ContentEncoding::Auto && bin.len() < 96),
             _ => true,
         };
 
         // Enable content encoding only if response does not contain Content-Encoding header
         let mut encoding = if has_body {
-            let encoding = match *resp.content_encoding() {
+            let encoding = match response_encoding {
                 ContentEncoding::Auto => {
                     // negotiate content-encoding
                     if let Some(val) = req.headers.get(ACCEPT_ENCODING) {