monit- Openssl engine error. Cannot open a connection to the mailserver

Setting up a new box and Monit was thowing me an error when connecting to Amazon SES

monit: Openssl engine error: error:1408F10B:SSL routines:func(143):reason(267)  
Cannot open a connection to the mailserver 'email-smtp.XXX-XXX.amazonaws.com:25'  

My config file was standard i.e. what I found from other users on the web

set mailserver email-smtp.XXX-XXX.amazonaws.com port 25  
  username "AAA" password "PPP"
  using sslv3 with timeout 15 seconds using hostname xxx.example.com

After playing around with ports I swapped out the encryption method as sslv3 as its a big security concern and since then all seems fine. For reference here is my new config

set mailserver email-smtp.XXX-XXX.amazonaws.com port 25  
  username "AAA" password "PPP"
  using tlsv1 with timeout 15 seconds using hostname xxx.example.com