diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 962752d42..369b93361 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 - [#1733](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/issues/1733): Fix statsd scientific notation parsing
 - [#1716](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/issues/1716): Sensors plugin strconv.ParseFloat: parsing "": invalid syntax
 - [#1530](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/issues/1530): Fix prometheus_client reload panic
+- [#1764](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/issues/1764): Fix kafka consumer panic when nil error is returned down errs channel.
 
 ## v1.0 [2016-09-08]
 
diff --git a/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go b/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go
index 5600d82a4..bdfce17f9 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/kafka_consumer/kafka_consumer.go
@@ -128,7 +128,9 @@ func (k *Kafka) receiver() {
 		case <-k.done:
 			return
 		case err := <-k.errs:
-			log.Printf("Kafka Consumer Error: %s\n", err.Error())
+			if err != nil {
+				log.Printf("Kafka Consumer Error: %s\n", err)
+			}
 		case msg := <-k.in:
 			metrics, err := k.parser.Parse(msg.Value)
 			if err != nil {