diff --git a/src/main/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDao.java b/src/main/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDao.java
index 91c29df2..8957d00f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDao.java
+++ b/src/main/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDao.java
@@ -26,22 +26,26 @@
 
 import static com.google.common.collect.Ranges.closedOpen;
 
+import net.sf.json.JSONObject;
 import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.exception.ExceptionUtils;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.CloseableHttpResponse;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
+import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
 import org.apache.http.entity.ContentType;
 import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
-import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClientBuilder;
 import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
-import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
+import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClientBuilder;
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.PrintStream;
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Set;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.Range;
 
@@ -155,4 +159,32 @@ private String getErrorMessage(CloseableHttpResponse response) {
 
   @Override
   public IndexerType getIndexerType() { return IndexerType.ELASTICSEARCH; }
+
+  @Override
+  public JSONObject buildPayload(BuildData buildData, String jenkinsUrl, List<String> logLines) {
+    JSONObject payload = super.buildPayload(buildData, jenkinsUrl, logLines);
+    JSONObject buildVariables = payload.getJSONObject("data").getJSONObject("buildVariables");
+    escapeKeysIllegalCharacter(buildVariables);
+    return payload;
+  }
+
+
+  /**
+   * Escapes any ElasticSearch illegal character to '_' character in all of the keys in the JSON object specified.
+   *
+   * @param jsonObject the json object which keys to be escapated
+   */
+  private void escapeKeysIllegalCharacter(JSONObject jsonObject) {
+    Set<String> illegalKeys = new HashSet<String>();
+    for (Object keyObject : jsonObject.keySet()) {
+      String key = (String) keyObject;
+      if(key.contains(".")) {
+        illegalKeys.add(key);
+      }
+    }
+    for (String illegalKey : illegalKeys) {
+      Object value = jsonObject.remove(illegalKey);
+      jsonObject.put(illegalKey.replace('.', '_'), value);
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDaoTest.java b/src/test/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDaoTest.java
index 17051a92..a1f41455 100644
--- a/src/test/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDaoTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/jenkins/plugins/logstash/persistence/ElasticSearchDaoTest.java
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 package jenkins.plugins.logstash.persistence;
 
+import net.sf.json.JSONObject;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.CharEncoding;
 import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
 import org.apache.http.StatusLine;
@@ -7,21 +8,24 @@
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
 import org.apache.http.entity.ContentType;
 import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
-import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClientBuilder;
 import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
+import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClientBuilder;
 import org.junit.After;
 import org.junit.Before;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
-import org.mockito.*;
+import org.mockito.Mock;
 import org.mockito.runners.MockitoJUnitRunner;
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.URI;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Set;
 
-import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
-import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+import static org.hamcrest.collection.IsIterableContainingInAnyOrder.containsInAnyOrder;
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
 import static org.mockito.Mockito.*;
 
 @RunWith(MockitoJUnitRunner.class)
@@ -230,4 +234,22 @@ public void pushFailStatusCode() throws Exception {
     }
 
   }
+
+
+  @Test
+  public void buildPayloadSuccessTransformPeriod() throws Exception {
+    BuildData mockBuildData = mock(BuildData.class);
+    String buildDataString = "{\"buildVariables\":{\"buildInfoConfig.propertiesFile\":\"any.value\", \"foo.bar\":\"boo.boo\"}}";
+    when(mockBuildData.toJson()).thenReturn(JSONObject.fromObject(buildDataString));
+
+    // Unit under test
+    ElasticSearchDao dao = createDao("http://localhost", 8200, "/jenkins/logstash", "", "");
+    JSONObject result = dao.buildPayload(mockBuildData, "http://localhost:8080/jenkins", new ArrayList<String>());
+
+    // Verify results
+    JSONObject buildVariables = result.getJSONObject("data").getJSONObject("buildVariables");
+    assertEquals(2, buildVariables.size());
+    assertThat((Set<String>) buildVariables.keySet(), containsInAnyOrder("buildInfoConfig_propertiesFile", "foo_bar"));
+    assertThat((Collection<String>) buildVariables.values(), containsInAnyOrder("any.value", "boo.boo"));
+  }
 }