diff --git a/encoder.go b/encoder.go
index d1f87f0..42e753f 100644
--- a/encoder.go
+++ b/encoder.go
@@ -19,6 +19,16 @@ func NewEncoder(base Encoding) (Encoder, error) {
 	return Encoder{base}, nil
 }
 
+// MustNewEncoder is like NewEncoder but will panic if the encoding is
+// invalid.
+func MustNewEncoder(base Encoding) Encoder {
+	_, ok := EncodingToStr[base]
+	if !ok {
+		panic("Unsupported multibase encoding")
+	}
+	return Encoder{base}
+}
+
 // EncoderByName creates an encoder from a string, the string can
 // either be the multibase name or single character multibase prefix
 func EncoderByName(str string) (Encoder, error) {
diff --git a/encoder_test.go b/encoder_test.go
index d09c805..3db2c13 100644
--- a/encoder_test.go
+++ b/encoder_test.go
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 )
 
-func TestInvalidPrefix(t *testing.T) {
+func TestInvalidCode(t *testing.T) {
 	_, err := NewEncoder('q')
 	if err == nil {
 		t.Error("expected failure")
@@ -21,23 +21,31 @@ func TestInvalidName(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestPrefix(t *testing.T) {
-	for str, base := range Encodings {
-		prefix, err := NewEncoder(base)
-		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatalf("NewEncoder(%c) failed: %v", base, err)
-		}
-		str1, err := Encode(base, sampleBytes)
+func TestEncoder(t *testing.T) {
+	for name, code := range Encodings {
+		encoder, err := NewEncoder(code)
 		if err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
-		str2 := prefix.Encode(sampleBytes)
-		if str1 != str2 {
-			t.Errorf("encoded string mismatch: %s != %s", str1, str2)
-		}
-		_, err = EncoderByName(str)
+		// Make sure the MustNewEncoder doesn't panic
+		MustNewEncoder(code)
+		str, err := Encode(code, sampleBytes)
 		if err != nil {
-			t.Fatalf("NewEncoder(%s) failed: %v", str, err)
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+		str2 := encoder.Encode(sampleBytes)
+		if str != str2 {
+			t.Errorf("encoded string mismatch: %s != %s", str, str2)
+		}
+		_, err = EncoderByName(name)
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("EncoderByName(%s) failed: %v", name, err)
+		}
+		// Test that an encoder can be created from the single letter
+		// prefix
+		_, err = EncoderByName(str[0:1])
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("EncoderByName(%s) failed: %v", str[0:1], err)
 		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/multibase_test.go b/multibase_test.go
index d688e66..f389f5c 100644
--- a/multibase_test.go
+++ b/multibase_test.go
@@ -7,13 +7,13 @@ import (
 )
 
 func TestMap(t *testing.T) {
-	for s,e := range Encodings {
+	for s, e := range Encodings {
 		s2 := EncodingToStr[e]
 		if s != s2 {
 			t.Errorf("round trip failed on encoding map: %s != %s", s, s2)
 		}
 	}
-	for e,s := range EncodingToStr {
+	for e, s := range EncodingToStr {
 		e2 := Encodings[s]
 		if e != e2 {
 			t.Errorf("round trip failed on encoding map: '%c' != '%c'", e, e2)