diff --git a/internal/models/running_output.go b/internal/models/running_output.go
index a0d1f6b03..25576d745 100644
--- a/internal/models/running_output.go
+++ b/internal/models/running_output.go
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ func (ro *RunningOutput) AddMetric(m telegraf.Metric) {
 		err := ro.write(batch)
 		if err != nil {
 			ro.failMetrics.Add(batch...)
+			log.Printf("E! Error writing to output [%s]: %v", ro.Name, err)
 		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/README.md b/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/README.md
index 24a0efc0f..b6fc8fc89 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/README.md
+++ b/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/README.md
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ and use the old zookeeper connection method.
 
   ## Maximum length of a message to consume, in bytes (default 0/unlimited);
   ## larger messages are dropped
-  max_message_len = 65536
+  max_message_len = 1000000
 ```
 
 ## Testing
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go b/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go
index d3791b224..eba9b68ac 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ type Kafka struct {
 	Topics        []string
 	Brokers       []string
 	MaxMessageLen int
+	Version       string `toml:"version"`
 
 	Cluster *cluster.Consumer
 
@@ -64,6 +65,12 @@ var sampleConfig = `
   ## Optional Client id
   # client_id = "Telegraf"
 
+  ## Set the minimal supported Kafka version.  Setting this enables the use of new
+  ## Kafka features and APIs.  Of particular interest, lz4 compression
+  ## requires at least version 0.10.0.0.
+  ##   ex: version = "1.1.0"
+  # version = ""
+
   ## Optional TLS Config
   # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
   # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
@@ -88,7 +95,7 @@ var sampleConfig = `
 
   ## Maximum length of a message to consume, in bytes (default 0/unlimited);
   ## larger messages are dropped
-  max_message_len = 65536
+  max_message_len = 1000000
 `
 
 func (k *Kafka) SampleConfig() string {
@@ -111,6 +118,15 @@ func (k *Kafka) Start(acc telegraf.Accumulator) error {
 	k.acc = acc
 
 	config := cluster.NewConfig()
+
+	if k.Version != "" {
+		version, err := sarama.ParseKafkaVersion(k.Version)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		config.Version = version
+	}
+
 	config.Consumer.Return.Errors = true
 
 	tlsConfig, err := k.ClientConfig.TLSConfig()
diff --git a/plugins/outputs/kafka/README.md b/plugins/outputs/kafka/README.md
index bb410a1d5..5f4758baa 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/kafka/README.md
+++ b/plugins/outputs/kafka/README.md
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ This plugin writes to a [Kafka Broker](http://kafka.apache.org/07/quickstart.htm
   ##  0 : No compression
   ##  1 : Gzip compression
   ##  2 : Snappy compression
+  ##  3 : LZ4 compression
   # compression_codec = 0
 
   ##  RequiredAcks is used in Produce Requests to tell the broker how many
diff --git a/plugins/outputs/kafka/kafka.go b/plugins/outputs/kafka/kafka.go
index 0bb5ca4a3..b9ae35396 100644
--- a/plugins/outputs/kafka/kafka.go
+++ b/plugins/outputs/kafka/kafka.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package kafka
 import (
 	"crypto/tls"
 	"fmt"
+	"log"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf"
@@ -79,7 +80,7 @@ var sampleConfig = `
   # client_id = "Telegraf"
 
   ## Set the minimal supported Kafka version.  Setting this enables the use of new
-  ## Kafka features and APIs.  Of particular interested, lz4 compression
+  ## Kafka features and APIs.  Of particular interest, lz4 compression
   ## requires at least version 0.10.0.0.
   ##   ex: version = "1.1.0"
   # version = ""
@@ -120,6 +121,7 @@ var sampleConfig = `
   ##  0 : No compression
   ##  1 : Gzip compression
   ##  2 : Snappy compression
+  ##  3 : LZ4 compression
   # compression_codec = 0
 
   ##  RequiredAcks is used in Produce Requests to tell the broker how many
@@ -294,6 +296,10 @@ func (k *Kafka) Write(metrics []telegraf.Metric) error {
 		// We could have many errors, return only the first encountered.
 		if errs, ok := err.(sarama.ProducerErrors); ok {
 			for _, prodErr := range errs {
+				if prodErr.Err == sarama.ErrMessageSizeTooLarge {
+					log.Printf("E! Error writing to output [kafka]: Message too large, consider increasing `max_message_bytes`; dropping batch")
+					return nil
+				}
 				return prodErr
 			}
 		}