diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a8e0bb0f..09b996cd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Master
 ===
 * Bundled Normalize.css updated to 2.0.1
+* Fixed encoding extension activation
 
 3.0.5
 ====
diff --git a/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/application.rb b/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/application.rb
index a3772cd3..be560400 100644
--- a/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/application.rb
+++ b/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/application.rb
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ module Middleman
     include Middleman::CoreExtensions::RubyEncoding
 
     # Basic Rack Request Handling
-    include Middleman::CoreExtensions::Request
+    register Middleman::CoreExtensions::Request
 
     # Handle exceptions
     register Middleman::CoreExtensions::ShowExceptions
diff --git a/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/core_extensions/ruby_encoding.rb b/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/core_extensions/ruby_encoding.rb
index b34f4219..e9168386 100644
--- a/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/core_extensions/ruby_encoding.rb
+++ b/middleman-core/lib/middleman-core/core_extensions/ruby_encoding.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ module Middleman::CoreExtensions::RubyEncoding
       app.send :include, InstanceMethods
     end
 
+    alias :included :registered
   end
 
   module InstanceMethods
diff --git a/middleman-more/lib/middleman-more/extensions/gzip.rb b/middleman-more/lib/middleman-more/extensions/gzip.rb
index a30139e5..4cb1ae6d 100644
--- a/middleman-more/lib/middleman-more/extensions/gzip.rb
+++ b/middleman-more/lib/middleman-more/extensions/gzip.rb
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ module Middleman::Extensions
     end
 
     def self.gzip_file(path)
-      input_file = File.open(path, 'r').read
+      input_file = File.open(path, 'rb').read
       output_filename = path + '.gz'
       input_file_time = File.mtime(path)
 
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ module Middleman::Extensions
         return
       end
 
-      File.open(output_filename, 'w') do |f|
+      File.open(output_filename, 'wb') do |f|
         gz = Zlib::GzipWriter.new(f, Zlib::BEST_COMPRESSION)
         gz.mtime = input_file_time.to_i
         gz.write input_file