diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index a6630e2b494..30ef8b0474c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v7.0.0-alpha2...master[Check the HEAD d
 - Update to Golang 1.12.1. {pull}11330[11330]
 - Update to Golang 1.12.4. {pull}11782[11782]
 - Update to ECS 1.0.1. {pull}12284[12284] {pull}12317[12317]
+- Default of output.kafka.metadata.full is set to false by now. This reduced the amount of metadata to be queried from a kafka cluster. {pull}12738[12738]
 
 *Auditbeat*
 
diff --git a/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml b/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml
index 95c31e50b7e..a0f2799142b 100644
--- a/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml
@@ -668,8 +668,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml b/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml
index 823b172c4a0..38d123b40a6 100644
--- a/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml
+++ b/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml
@@ -1372,8 +1372,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/heartbeat/heartbeat.reference.yml b/heartbeat/heartbeat.reference.yml
index 008eb35636d..9525e30cff8 100644
--- a/heartbeat/heartbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/heartbeat/heartbeat.reference.yml
@@ -812,8 +812,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/journalbeat/journalbeat.reference.yml b/journalbeat/journalbeat.reference.yml
index 42989dfd619..d29f6d5752f 100644
--- a/journalbeat/journalbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/journalbeat/journalbeat.reference.yml
@@ -608,8 +608,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/libbeat/_meta/config.reference.yml.tmpl b/libbeat/_meta/config.reference.yml.tmpl
index e48ff516b80..5a297e39881 100644
--- a/libbeat/_meta/config.reference.yml.tmpl
+++ b/libbeat/_meta/config.reference.yml.tmpl
@@ -556,8 +556,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/libbeat/docs/outputconfig.asciidoc b/libbeat/docs/outputconfig.asciidoc
index 4edb606ed2c..b039351bdc2 100644
--- a/libbeat/docs/outputconfig.asciidoc
+++ b/libbeat/docs/outputconfig.asciidoc
@@ -1142,7 +1142,7 @@ brokers, topics, partition, and active leaders to use for publishing.
 
 *`full`*:: Strategy to use when fetching metadata, when this option is `true`, the client will maintain
 a full set of metadata for all the available topics, if the this option is set to `false` it will only refresh the
-metadata for the configured topics. The default is true.
+metadata for the configured topics. The default is false.
 
 *`retry.max`*:: Total number of metadata update retries when cluster is in middle of leader election. The default is 3.
 
diff --git a/libbeat/outputs/kafka/config.go b/libbeat/outputs/kafka/config.go
index 7a3d7208b08..e96f96ef7a5 100644
--- a/libbeat/outputs/kafka/config.go
+++ b/libbeat/outputs/kafka/config.go
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ func defaultConfig() kafkaConfig {
 				Backoff: 250 * time.Millisecond,
 			},
 			RefreshFreq: 10 * time.Minute,
-			Full:        true,
+			Full:        false,
 		},
 		KeepAlive:        0,
 		MaxMessageBytes:  nil, // use library default
diff --git a/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml b/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
index 4b1c9e50e47..92e69b9d08a 100644
--- a/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
@@ -1326,8 +1326,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/packetbeat/packetbeat.reference.yml b/packetbeat/packetbeat.reference.yml
index e95ef3fd435..a35116ec654 100644
--- a/packetbeat/packetbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/packetbeat/packetbeat.reference.yml
@@ -1045,8 +1045,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml b/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml
index cba009eed0f..67700af19ff 100644
--- a/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml
@@ -589,8 +589,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/x-pack/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml b/x-pack/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml
index 4c1961fb2f4..253ab0f1d8e 100644
--- a/x-pack/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/x-pack/auditbeat/auditbeat.reference.yml
@@ -719,8 +719,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/x-pack/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml b/x-pack/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml
index ac938746b1d..f2436f5d630 100644
--- a/x-pack/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml
+++ b/x-pack/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml
@@ -1520,8 +1520,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/x-pack/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml b/x-pack/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
index ffac94653ad..a9222ac900d 100644
--- a/x-pack/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/x-pack/metricbeat/metricbeat.reference.yml
@@ -1421,8 +1421,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1
diff --git a/x-pack/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml b/x-pack/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml
index ae1594907c2..3ba4221449a 100644
--- a/x-pack/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml
+++ b/x-pack/winlogbeat/winlogbeat.reference.yml
@@ -601,8 +601,8 @@ output.elasticsearch:
     # Refresh metadata interval. Defaults to every 10 minutes.
     #refresh_frequency: 10m
 
-    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is true.
-    #full: true
+    # Strategy for fetching the topics metadata from the broker. Default is false.
+    #full: false
 
   # The number of concurrent load-balanced Kafka output workers.
   #worker: 1