diff --git a/ckanext/subscribe/mailer.py b/ckanext/subscribe/mailer.py
index b854b40..8b3eca3 100644
--- a/ckanext/subscribe/mailer.py
+++ b/ckanext/subscribe/mailer.py
@@ -63,7 +63,6 @@ def _mail_recipient(
 
 def _mail_payload(msg, mail_from, recipient_email):
     # Send the email using Python's smtplib.
-    smtp_connection = smtplib.SMTP()
     if "smtp.test_server" in config:
         # If 'smtp.test_server' is configured we assume we're running tests,
         # and don't use the smtp.server, starttls, user, password etc. options.
@@ -77,6 +76,8 @@ def _mail_payload(msg, mail_from, recipient_email):
         smtp_user = config.get("smtp.user")
         smtp_password = config.get("smtp.password")
 
+    smtp_connection = smtplib.SMTP(smtp_server)
+
     try:
         smtp_connection.connect(smtp_server)
     except socket.error as e: