diff --git a/ansible/roles/kafka/templates/kafka.server.properties.j2 b/ansible/roles/kafka/templates/kafka.server.properties.j2
index d7acf2dbd6..944a7088a5 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/kafka/templates/kafka.server.properties.j2
+++ b/ansible/roles/kafka/templates/kafka.server.properties.j2
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ socket.receive.buffer.bytes=102400
 socket.request.max.bytes=104857600
 log.dirs=/var/lib/kafka/data
 min.insync.replicas={{ kafka_broker_count if kafka_broker_count|int < 3 else 2 }}
+default.replication.factor={{ kafka_broker_count if kafka_broker_count|int < 3 else 3 }}
 num.partitions=30
 num.recovery.threads.per.data.dir=1
 offsets.topic.replication.factor={{ kafka_broker_count if kafka_broker_count|int < 3 else 3 }}
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/improve-kafka-default-topic-replication-0debd5eb89f0c50d.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/improve-kafka-default-topic-replication-0debd5eb89f0c50d.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a57e8a55ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/improve-kafka-default-topic-replication-0debd5eb89f0c50d.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    An issue where when Kafka default topic creation was used to create a
+    Kafka topic, no redundant replicas were created in a multi-node cluster.
+    `LP#1888522 <https://launchpad.net/bugs/1888522>`__. This affects Monasca
+    which uses Kafka, and was previously masked by the legacy Kafka client used
+    by Monasca which has since been upgraded in Ussuri. Monasca users with
+    multi-node Kafka clusters should consultant the Kafka `documentation
+    <https://kafka.apache.org/documentation/>`__ to increase the number of
+    replicas.