diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a4b39ea49a..977c67b98f 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+Mon May 23 04:03:46 2011  Martin Bosslet  <Martin.Bosslet@googlemail.com>
+
+	* ext/openssl/ossl_asn1.c (ossl_asn1_initialize): Allow creation of
+	Constructives with an explicit tag_class parameter without
+	automatically setting tagging to :EXPLICIT. Fixes a bug when encoding
+	infinite length primitive values.
+
 Mon May 23 04:03:46 2011  Martin Bosslet  <Martin.Bosslet@googlemail.com>
 
 	* ext/openssl/ossl_asn1.c (ossl_asn1_cons_to_der): Add an additional
diff --git a/ext/openssl/ossl_asn1.c b/ext/openssl/ossl_asn1.c
index 7b0c16ca78..aa531ba572 100644
--- a/ext/openssl/ossl_asn1.c
+++ b/ext/openssl/ossl_asn1.c
@@ -1011,12 +1011,14 @@ ossl_asn1_initialize(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
     if(argc > 1){
 	if(NIL_P(tag))
 	    ossl_raise(eASN1Error, "must specify tag number");
-        if(NIL_P(tagging))
-	    tagging = ID2SYM(sEXPLICIT);
-	if(!SYMBOL_P(tagging))
-	    ossl_raise(eASN1Error, "invalid tag default");
-	if(NIL_P(tag_class))
-	    tag_class = ID2SYM(sCONTEXT_SPECIFIC);
+	if(!NIL_P(tagging) && !SYMBOL_P(tagging))
+	    ossl_raise(eASN1Error, "invalid tagging method");
+	if(NIL_P(tag_class)) {
+	    if (NIL_P(tagging))
+		tag_class = ID2SYM(sUNIVERSAL);
+	    else
+		tag_class = ID2SYM(sCONTEXT_SPECIFIC);
+	}
 	if(!SYMBOL_P(tag_class))
 	    ossl_raise(eASN1Error, "invalid tag class");
 	if(SYM2ID(tagging) == sIMPLICIT && NUM2INT(tag) > 31)
@@ -1024,7 +1026,7 @@ ossl_asn1_initialize(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
     }
     else{
 	tag = INT2NUM(ossl_asn1_default_tag(self));
-        tagging = Qnil;
+	tagging = Qnil;
 	tag_class = ID2SYM(sUNIVERSAL);
     }
     ossl_asn1_set_tag(self, tag);