diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index c7aaf66..57d74ec 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 - Fix an issue where the ``flatten()`` method produces an invalid name
   (ex: "answer.0.") for the type "Sequence".  See
   https://github.com/Pylons/colander/issues/179
+- Fixed issue with ``String`` not being properly encoded when non-string
+  values were passed into ``serialize()``
+  See `#235 <https://github.com/Pylons/colander/pull/235>`_
 
 
 1.0 (2014-11-26)
diff --git a/colander/__init__.py b/colander/__init__.py
index 1bd8f87..a99deed 100644
--- a/colander/__init__.py
+++ b/colander/__init__.py
@@ -1185,6 +1185,8 @@ class String(SchemaType):
                     result = text_type(appstruct)
             else:
                 result = text_type(appstruct)
+                if self.encoding:
+                    result = result.encode(self.encoding)
             return result
         except Exception as e:
             raise Invalid(node,
diff --git a/colander/tests/test_colander.py b/colander/tests/test_colander.py
index 6d05d71..0dd99aa 100644
--- a/colander/tests/test_colander.py
+++ b/colander/tests/test_colander.py
@@ -1557,6 +1557,13 @@ class TestString(unittest.TestCase):
         e = invalid_exc(typ.serialize, node, not_utf8)
         self.assertTrue('cannot be serialized' in e.msg)
 
+    def test_serialize_encoding_with_non_string_type(self):
+        utf8 = text_type('123').encode('utf-8')
+        node = DummySchemaNode(None)
+        typ = self._makeOne('utf-8')
+        result = typ.serialize(node, 123)
+        self.assertEqual(result, utf8)
+
 class TestInteger(unittest.TestCase):
     def _makeOne(self):
         from colander import Integer