diff --git a/buffer/src/main/java/io/netty/buffer/ByteBufUtil.java b/buffer/src/main/java/io/netty/buffer/ByteBufUtil.java
index f2ce52256d..e1a53607f6 100644
--- a/buffer/src/main/java/io/netty/buffer/ByteBufUtil.java
+++ b/buffer/src/main/java/io/netty/buffer/ByteBufUtil.java
@@ -335,6 +335,92 @@ public final class ByteBufUtil {
         return -1;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Encode a {@link CharSequence} in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8">UTF-8</a> and write
+     * it to a {@link ByteBuf}.
+     *
+     * This method returns the actual number of bytes written.
+     */
+    public static int writeUtf8(ByteBuf buf, CharSequence seq) {
+        if (buf == null) {
+            throw new NullPointerException("buf");
+        }
+        if (seq == null) {
+            throw new NullPointerException("seq");
+        }
+        // UTF-8 uses max. 3 bytes per char, so calculate the worst case.
+        final int len = seq.length();
+        final int maxSize = len * 3;
+        buf.ensureWritable(maxSize);
+        if (buf instanceof AbstractByteBuf) {
+            // Fast-Path
+            AbstractByteBuf buffer = (AbstractByteBuf) buf;
+            int oldWriterIndex = buffer.writerIndex;
+            int writerIndex = oldWriterIndex;
+
+            // We can use the _set methods as these not need to do any index checks and reference checks.
+            // This is possible as we called ensureWritable(...) before.
+            for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+                char c = seq.charAt(i);
+                if (c < 0x80) {
+                    buffer._setByte(writerIndex++, (byte) c);
+                } else if (c < 0x800) {
+                    buffer._setByte(writerIndex++, (byte) (0xc0 | (c >> 6)));
+                    buffer._setByte(writerIndex++, (byte) (0x80 | (c & 0x3f)));
+                } else {
+                    buffer._setByte(writerIndex++, (byte) (0xe0 | (c >> 12)));
+                    buffer._setByte(writerIndex++, (byte) (0x80 | ((c >> 6) & 0x3f)));
+                    buffer._setByte(writerIndex++, (byte) (0x80 | (c & 0x3f)));
+                }
+            }
+            // update the writerIndex without any extra checks for performance reasons
+            buffer.writerIndex = writerIndex;
+            return writerIndex - oldWriterIndex;
+        } else {
+            // Maybe we could also check if we can unwrap() to access the wrapped buffer which
+            // may be an AbstractByteBuf. But this may be overkill so let us keep it simple for now.
+            byte[] bytes = seq.toString().getBytes(CharsetUtil.UTF_8);
+            buf.writeBytes(bytes);
+            return bytes.length;
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Encode a {@link CharSequence} in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII">ASCII</a> and write it
+     * to a {@link ByteBuf}.
+     *
+     * This method returns the actual number of bytes written.
+     */
+    public static int writeAscii(ByteBuf buf, CharSequence seq) {
+        if (buf == null) {
+            throw new NullPointerException("buf");
+        }
+        if (seq == null) {
+            throw new NullPointerException("seq");
+        }
+        // ASCII uses 1 byte per char
+        final int len = seq.length();
+        buf.ensureWritable(len);
+        if (buf instanceof AbstractByteBuf) {
+            // Fast-Path
+            AbstractByteBuf buffer = (AbstractByteBuf) buf;
+            int writerIndex = buffer.writerIndex;
+
+            // We can use the _set methods as these not need to do any index checks and reference checks.
+            // This is possible as we called ensureWritable(...) before.
+            for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+                buffer._setByte(writerIndex++, (byte) seq.charAt(i));
+            }
+            // update the writerIndex without any extra checks for performance reasons
+            buffer.writerIndex = writerIndex;
+        } else {
+            // Maybe we could also check if we can unwrap() to access the wrapped buffer which
+            // may be an AbstractByteBuf. But this may be overkill so let us keep it simple for now.
+            buf.writeBytes(seq.toString().getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+        }
+        return len;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Encode the given {@link CharBuffer} using the given {@link Charset} into a new {@link ByteBuf} which
      * is allocated via the {@link ByteBufAllocator}.
diff --git a/buffer/src/test/java/io/netty/buffer/ByteBufUtilTest.java b/buffer/src/test/java/io/netty/buffer/ByteBufUtilTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fb04c78ce7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/buffer/src/test/java/io/netty/buffer/ByteBufUtilTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2014 The Netty Project
+ *
+ * The Netty Project licenses this file to you under the Apache License,
+ * version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ * WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ * License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package io.netty.buffer;
+
+import io.netty.util.CharsetUtil;
+import io.netty.util.ReferenceCountUtil;
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class ByteBufUtilTest {
+
+    @Test
+    public void testWriteUsAscii() {
+        String usAscii = "NettyRocks";
+        ByteBuf buf = ReferenceCountUtil.releaseLater(Unpooled.buffer(16));
+        buf.writeBytes(usAscii.getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+        ByteBuf buf2 = ReferenceCountUtil.releaseLater(Unpooled.buffer(16));
+        ByteBufUtil.writeAscii(buf2, usAscii);
+
+        Assert.assertEquals(buf, buf2);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testWriteUtf8() {
+        String usAscii = "Some UTF-8 like äÄ∏ŒŒ";
+        ByteBuf buf = ReferenceCountUtil.releaseLater(Unpooled.buffer(16));
+        buf.writeBytes(usAscii.getBytes(CharsetUtil.UTF_8));
+        ByteBuf buf2 = ReferenceCountUtil.releaseLater(Unpooled.buffer(16));
+        ByteBufUtil.writeUtf8(buf2, usAscii);
+
+        Assert.assertEquals(buf, buf2);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/microbench/src/test/java/io/netty/microbench/buffer/ByteBufUtilBenchmark.java b/microbench/src/test/java/io/netty/microbench/buffer/ByteBufUtilBenchmark.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a4b6a3da9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/microbench/src/test/java/io/netty/microbench/buffer/ByteBufUtilBenchmark.java
@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+/*
+* Copyright 2014 The Netty Project
+*
+* The Netty Project licenses this file to you under the Apache License,
+* version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+* with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
+*
+*   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+*
+* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+* WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+* License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+* under the License.
+*/
+package io.netty.microbench.buffer;
+
+import io.netty.buffer.ByteBuf;
+import io.netty.buffer.ByteBufUtil;
+import io.netty.buffer.Unpooled;
+import io.netty.microbench.util.AbstractMicrobenchmark;
+import io.netty.util.CharsetUtil;
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.Benchmark;
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.Measurement;
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.Scope;
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.Setup;
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.State;
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.TearDown;
+import org.openjdk.jmh.annotations.Warmup;
+
+
+@State(Scope.Benchmark)
+@Warmup(iterations = 10)
+@Measurement(iterations = 25)
+public class ByteBufUtilBenchmark extends AbstractMicrobenchmark {
+    private ByteBuf buffer;
+    private ByteBuf wrapped;
+
+    private StringBuilder asciiSequence;
+    private String ascii;
+
+    private StringBuilder utf8Sequence;
+    private String utf8;
+
+    @Setup
+    public void setup() {
+        // Use buffer sizes that will also allow to write UTF-8 without grow the buffer
+        buffer = Unpooled.directBuffer(512);
+        wrapped = Unpooled.unreleasableBuffer(Unpooled.directBuffer(512));
+        asciiSequence = new StringBuilder(128);
+        for (int i = 0; i < 128; i++) {
+            asciiSequence.append('a');
+        }
+        ascii = asciiSequence.toString();
+
+        // Generate some mixed UTF-8 String for benchmark
+        utf8Sequence = new StringBuilder(128);
+        char[] chars = "Some UTF-8 like äÄ∏ŒŒ".toCharArray();
+        for (int i = 0; i < 128; i++) {
+            utf8Sequence.append(chars[i % chars.length]);
+        }
+        utf8 = utf8Sequence.toString();
+        asciiSequence = utf8Sequence;
+    }
+
+    @TearDown
+    public void tearDown() {
+        buffer.release();
+        wrapped.release();
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAsciiStringViaArray() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        buffer.writeBytes(ascii.getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAsciiStringViaArrayWrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        wrapped.writeBytes(ascii.getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAsciiString() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeAscii(buffer, ascii);
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAsciiStringWrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeAscii(wrapped, ascii);
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAsciiViaArray() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        buffer.writeBytes(asciiSequence.toString().getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAsciiViaArrayWrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        wrapped.writeBytes(asciiSequence.toString().getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAscii() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeAscii(buffer, asciiSequence);
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeAsciiWrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeAscii(wrapped, asciiSequence);
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8StringViaArray() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        buffer.writeBytes(utf8.getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8StringViaArrayWrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        wrapped.writeBytes(utf8.getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8String() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeUtf8(buffer, utf8);
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8StringWrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeUtf8(wrapped, utf8);
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8ViaArray() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        buffer.writeBytes(utf8Sequence.toString().getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8ViaArrayWrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        wrapped.writeBytes(utf8Sequence.toString().getBytes(CharsetUtil.US_ASCII));
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8() {
+        buffer.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeUtf8(buffer, utf8Sequence);
+    }
+
+    @Benchmark
+    public void writeUtf8Wrapped() {
+        wrapped.resetWriterIndex();
+        ByteBufUtil.writeUtf8(wrapped, utf8Sequence);
+    }
+}