diff --git a/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb b/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb
index 7a71e2e8c..3f74785f2 100644
--- a/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb
@@ -1475,7 +1475,7 @@
             expect( event ).to be_a LogStash::Event
             expect( event ).to be events.first
             expect( reason ).to start_with "Could not index event to Elasticsearch. status: #{error_code}, action: [\"index\""
-            expect( reason ).to match /_id=>"bar".*"foo"=>"bar".*response:.*"reason"=>"TEST"/
+            expect( reason ).to match /_id(?::| ?=>) ?"bar".*"foo" ?=> ?"bar".*response:.*"reason" ?=> ?"TEST"/
 
             method.call(*args) # won't hurt to call LogStash::Util::DummyDeadLetterQueueWriter
           end.once