diff --git a/CHANGES/1104.misc.rst b/CHANGES/1104.misc.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..16e839b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CHANGES/1104.misc.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Improved performance of encoding hosts -- by :user:`bdraco`.
+
+Previously, the library would unconditionally try to parse a host as an IP Address. The library now avoids trying to parse a host as an IP Address if the string is not in one of the formats described in :rfc:`3986#section-3.2.2`.
diff --git a/tests/test_url_build.py b/tests/test_url_build.py
index 5aecbc58..1d5c4d09 100644
--- a/tests/test_url_build.py
+++ b/tests/test_url_build.py
@@ -15,6 +15,21 @@ def test_build_simple():
     assert str(u) == "http://127.0.0.1"
 
 
+def test_url_build_ipv6():
+    u = URL.build(scheme="http", host="::1")
+    assert str(u) == "http://::1"
+
+
+def test_url_build_ipv6_brackets():
+    u = URL.build(scheme="http", host="[::1]")
+    assert str(u) == "http://::1"
+
+
+def test_url_ipv4_in_ipv6():
+    u = URL.build(scheme="http", host="2001:db8:122:344::192.0.2.33")
+    assert str(u) == "http://2001:db8:122:344::c000:221"
+
+
 def test_build_with_scheme():
     u = URL.build(scheme="blob", path="path")
     assert str(u) == "blob:path"
diff --git a/yarl/_url.py b/yarl/_url.py
index b32856bc..9a429e45 100644
--- a/yarl/_url.py
+++ b/yarl/_url.py
@@ -850,27 +850,45 @@ def _normalize_path(cls, path: str) -> str:
     @classmethod
     def _encode_host(cls, host: str, human: bool = False) -> str:
         raw_ip, sep, zone = host.partition("%")
-        # IP parsing is slow, so its wrapped in an LRU
-        try:
-            ip_compressed_version = _ip_compressed_version(raw_ip)
-        except ValueError:
-            host = host.lower()
-            # IDNA encoding is slow,
-            # skip it for ASCII-only strings
-            # Don't move the check into _idna_encode() helper
-            # to reduce the cache size
-            if human or host.isascii():
+        if raw_ip and raw_ip[-1].isdigit() or ":" in raw_ip:
+            # Might be an IP address, check it
+            #
+            # IP Addresses can look like:
+            # https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3986#section-3.2.2
+            # - 127.0.0.1 (last character is a digit)
+            # - 2001:db8::ff00:42:8329 (contains a colon)
+            # - 2001:db8::ff00:42:8329%eth0 (contains a colon)
+            # - [2001:db8::ff00:42:8329] (contains a colon)
+            # Rare IP Address formats are not supported per:
+            # https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3986#section-7.4
+            #
+            # We try to avoid parsing IP addresses as much as possible
+            # since its orders of magnitude slower than almost any other operation
+            # this library does.
+            #
+            # IP parsing is slow, so its wrapped in an LRU
+            try:
+                ip_compressed_version = _ip_compressed_version(raw_ip)
+            except ValueError:
+                pass
+            else:
+                # These checks should not happen in the
+                # LRU to keep the cache size small
+                host, version = ip_compressed_version
+                if sep:
+                    host += "%" + zone
+                if version == 6:
+                    return f"[{host}]"
                 return host
-            return _idna_encode(host)
-
-        # These checks should not happen in the
-        # LRU to keep the cache size small
-        host, version = ip_compressed_version
-        if sep:
-            host += "%" + zone
-        if version == 6:
-            return f"[{host}]"
-        return host
+
+        host = host.lower()
+        # IDNA encoding is slow,
+        # skip it for ASCII-only strings
+        # Don't move the check into _idna_encode() helper
+        # to reduce the cache size
+        if human or host.isascii():
+            return host
+        return _idna_encode(host)
 
     @classmethod
     def _make_netloc(