diff --git a/lib/logstash/plugin_mixins/elasticsearch/common.rb b/lib/logstash/plugin_mixins/elasticsearch/common.rb
index 8e7f92408..130428232 100644
--- a/lib/logstash/plugin_mixins/elasticsearch/common.rb
+++ b/lib/logstash/plugin_mixins/elasticsearch/common.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 require "logstash/outputs/elasticsearch/template_manager"
+require "logstash/json"
 
 module LogStash; module PluginMixins; module ElasticSearch
   module Common
@@ -237,8 +238,8 @@ def handle_dlq_response(message, action, status, response)
 
       if @dlq_writer
         # TODO: Change this to send a map with { :status => status, :action => action } in the future
-        detailed_message = "#{message} status: #{status}, action: #{action_params}, response: #{response}"
-        @dlq_writer.write(event, "#{detailed_message}")
+        detailed_message = "#{message} status: #{status}, action: #{LogStash::Json.dump(action_params)}, response: #{LogStash::Json.dump(response)}"
+        @dlq_writer.write(event, detailed_message)
       else
         log_level = dig_value(response, 'index', 'error', 'type') == 'invalid_index_name_exception' ? :error : :warn
 
diff --git a/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb b/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb
index 7a71e2e8c..cca42cdb9 100644
--- a/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/unit/outputs/elasticsearch_spec.rb
@@ -1475,7 +1475,9 @@
             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 include '"_id":"bar"'
+            expect( reason ).to include '"foo":"bar"'
+            expect( reason ).to include '"reason":"TEST"'
 
             method.call(*args) # won't hurt to call LogStash::Util::DummyDeadLetterQueueWriter
           end.once