diff --git a/HISTORY.rst b/HISTORY.rst
index 2042a26..f76d2b4 100644
--- a/HISTORY.rst
+++ b/HISTORY.rst
@@ -3,6 +3,12 @@ History
 =======
 
 
+v0.12.4 (2021-03-17)
+-----------------------
+
+* Add ability to set encoding on Redis client.
+
+
 v0.12.3 (2021-03-12)
 -----------------------
 
diff --git a/aioradio/redis.py b/aioradio/redis.py
index 559bf68..5268f2a 100644
--- a/aioradio/redis.py
+++ b/aioradio/redis.py
@@ -46,9 +46,12 @@ class Redis:
 
     def __post_init__(self):
         primary_endpoint = self.config["redis_primary_endpoint"]
-        self.pool = redis.Redis(host=primary_endpoint)
+        if "encoding" in self.config:
+            self.pool = redis.Redis(host=primary_endpoint, encoding=self.config["encoding"], decode_responses=True)
+        else:
+            self.pool = redis.Redis(host=primary_endpoint)
 
-    async def get(self, key: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='utf-8') -> Any:
+    async def get(self, key: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]=None) -> Any:
         """Check if an item is cached in redis.
 
         Args:
@@ -73,7 +76,7 @@ async def get(self, key: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='u
 
         return value
 
-    async def mget(self, items: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='utf-8') -> List[Any]:
+    async def mget(self, items: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]=None) -> List[Any]:
         """Check if many items are cached in redis.
 
         Args:
@@ -137,7 +140,7 @@ async def delete(self, key: str) -> int:
 
         return self.pool.delete(key)
 
-    async def hget(self, key: str, field: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='utf-8') -> Any:
+    async def hget(self, key: str, field: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]=None) -> Any:
         """Get the value of a hash field.
 
         Args:
@@ -163,7 +166,7 @@ async def hget(self, key: str, field: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[
 
         return value
 
-    async def hmget(self, key: str, fields: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='utf-8') -> Any:
+    async def hmget(self, key: str, fields: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]=None) -> Any:
         """Get the values of all the given fields.
 
         Args:
@@ -190,7 +193,7 @@ async def hmget(self, key: str, fields: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding
 
         return items
 
-    async def hmget_many(self, keys: List[str], fields: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='utf-8') -> List[Any]:
+    async def hmget_many(self, keys: List[str], fields: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]=None) -> List[Any]:
         """Get the values of all the given fields for many hashed keys.
 
         Args:
@@ -224,7 +227,7 @@ async def hmget_many(self, keys: List[str], fields: List[str], use_json: bool=No
 
         return results
 
-    async def hgetall(self, key: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='utf-8') -> Any:
+    async def hgetall(self, key: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]=None) -> Any:
         """Get all the fields and values in a hash.
 
         Args:
@@ -252,7 +255,7 @@ async def hgetall(self, key: str, use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None
 
         return items
 
-    async def hgetall_many(self, keys: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]='utf-8') -> List[Any]:
+    async def hgetall_many(self, keys: List[str], use_json: bool=None, encoding: Union[str, None]=None) -> List[Any]:
         """Get all the fields and values in a hash.
 
         Args:
diff --git a/aioradio/requirements.txt b/aioradio/requirements.txt
index 3dd1ee0..ae05c5e 100644
--- a/aioradio/requirements.txt
+++ b/aioradio/requirements.txt
@@ -3,8 +3,7 @@ aiobotocore==1.1.2
 aiojobs==0.3.0
 ddtrace==0.47.0
 flask==1.1.2
-git+https://github.com/aio-libs/aioredis@sean/aioredis-redis-py-compliance
-httpx==0.17.0
+httpx==0.17.1
 mandrill==1.0.59
 moto==1.3.16
 orjson==3.5.1
@@ -18,5 +17,5 @@ pytest-asyncio==0.14.0
 pytest-cov==2.11.1
 python-json-logger==2.0.1
 redis==3.5.3
-twine==3.3.0
+twine==3.4.1
 wheel==0.36.2
diff --git a/conftest.py b/conftest.py
index ef14330..7554487 100644
--- a/conftest.py
+++ b/conftest.py
@@ -57,7 +57,8 @@ def cache(github_action):
         pytest.skip('Skip test_set_one_item when running via Github Action')
 
     cache_object = Redis(config={
-        'redis_primary_endpoint': 'prod-race2.gbngr1.ng.0001.use1.cache.amazonaws.com'
+        'redis_primary_endpoint': 'prod-race2.gbngr1.ng.0001.use1.cache.amazonaws.com',
+        'encoding': 'utf-8'
     })
     yield cache_object
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 85d84cc..3f07d13 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
     long_description = fileobj.read()
 
 setup(name='aioradio',
-    version='0.12.3',
+    version='0.12.4',
     description='Generic asynchronous i/o python utilities for AWS services (SQS, S3, DynamoDB, Secrets Manager), Redis, MSSQL (pyodbc), JIRA and more',
     long_description=long_description,
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",