diff --git a/lib/Redis.pm b/lib/Redis.pm
index 62bcb21..794367c 100644
--- a/lib/Redis.pm
+++ b/lib/Redis.pm
@@ -752,7 +752,8 @@ sub __build_sock {
   } while (!$self->{sock} && $! == Errno::EINTR);
 
   unless ($self->{sock}) {
-    croak("Could not connect to Redis server at $self->{server}: $!");
+    my $e = $! || $IO::Socket::SSL::SSL_ERROR || "unknown error";
+    croak("Could not connect to Redis server at $self->{server}: $e");
   }
 
   $self->{__buf} = '';