diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaApis.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaApis.scala
index c011a1b79bd..ec8d9f7ba44 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaApis.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaApis.scala
@@ -351,10 +351,17 @@ class KafkaApis(val requestChannel: RequestChannel,
         if (topic == OffsetManager.OffsetsTopicName || config.autoCreateTopicsEnable) {
           try {
             if (topic == OffsetManager.OffsetsTopicName) {
-              AdminUtils.createTopic(zkClient, topic, config.offsetsTopicPartitions, config.offsetsTopicReplicationFactor,
+              val aliveBrokers = metadataCache.getAliveBrokers
+              val offsetsTopicReplicationFactor =
+                if (aliveBrokers.length > 0)
+                  Math.min(config.offsetsTopicReplicationFactor, aliveBrokers.length)
+                else
+                  config.offsetsTopicReplicationFactor
+              AdminUtils.createTopic(zkClient, topic, config.offsetsTopicPartitions,
+                                     offsetsTopicReplicationFactor,
                                      offsetManager.offsetsTopicConfig)
               info("Auto creation of topic %s with %d partitions and replication factor %d is successful!"
-                .format(topic, config.offsetsTopicPartitions, config.offsetsTopicReplicationFactor))
+                .format(topic, config.offsetsTopicPartitions, offsetsTopicReplicationFactor))
             }
             else {
               AdminUtils.createTopic(zkClient, topic, config.numPartitions, config.defaultReplicationFactor)
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaConfig.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaConfig.scala
index d3d8ac42c29..88689df7183 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaConfig.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/KafkaConfig.scala
@@ -312,7 +312,11 @@ class KafkaConfig private (val props: VerifiableProperties) extends ZKConfig(pro
   val offsetsLoadBufferSize = props.getIntInRange("offsets.load.buffer.size",
     OffsetManagerConfig.DefaultLoadBufferSize, (1, Integer.MAX_VALUE))
 
-  /** The replication factor for the offset commit topic (set higher to ensure availability). */
+  /** The replication factor for the offsets topic (set higher to ensure availability). To
+    * ensure that the effective replication factor of the offsets topic is the configured value,
+    * the number of alive brokers has to be at least the replication factor at the time of the
+    * first request for the offsets topic. If not, either the offsets topic creation will fail or
+    * it will get a replication factor of min(alive brokers, configured replication factor) */
   val offsetsTopicReplicationFactor: Short = props.getShortInRange("offsets.topic.replication.factor",
     OffsetManagerConfig.DefaultOffsetsTopicReplicationFactor, (1, Short.MaxValue))
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/OffsetManager.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/OffsetManager.scala
index 3c794289626..0bdd42fea93 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/OffsetManager.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/server/OffsetManager.scala
@@ -75,9 +75,9 @@ object OffsetManagerConfig {
   val DefaultMaxMetadataSize = 4096
   val DefaultLoadBufferSize = 5*1024*1024
   val DefaultOffsetsRetentionCheckIntervalMs = 600000L
-  val DefaultOffsetsTopicNumPartitions = 1
+  val DefaultOffsetsTopicNumPartitions = 50
   val DefaultOffsetsTopicSegmentBytes = 100*1024*1024
-  val DefaultOffsetsTopicReplicationFactor = 1.toShort
+  val DefaultOffsetsTopicReplicationFactor = 3.toShort
   val DefaultOffsetsTopicCompressionCodec = NoCompressionCodec
   val DefaultOffsetCommitTimeoutMs = 5000
   val DefaultOffsetCommitRequiredAcks = (-1).toShort
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/ProducerFailureHandlingTest.scala b/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/ProducerFailureHandlingTest.scala
index 5ec613cdb50..420a1dd3026 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/ProducerFailureHandlingTest.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/integration/kafka/api/ProducerFailureHandlingTest.scala
@@ -46,6 +46,13 @@ class ProducerFailureHandlingTest extends KafkaServerTestHarness {
       override val zkConnect = TestZKUtils.zookeeperConnect
       override val autoCreateTopicsEnable = false
       override val messageMaxBytes = serverMessageMaxBytes
+      // TODO: Currently, when there is no topic in a cluster, the controller doesn't send any UpdateMetadataRequest to
+      // the broker. As a result, the live broker list in metadataCache is empty. If the number of live brokers is 0, we
+      // try to create the offset topic with the default offsets.topic.replication.factor of 3. The creation will fail
+      // since there is not enough live brokers. This causes testCannotSendToInternalTopic() to fail. Temporarily fixing
+      // the issue by overriding offsets.topic.replication.factor to 1 for now. When we fix KAFKA-1867, we need to
+      // remove the following config override.
+      override val offsetsTopicReplicationFactor = 1.asInstanceOf[Short]
     }
 
 
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/server/OffsetCommitTest.scala b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/server/OffsetCommitTest.scala
index 4a3a5b264a0..5b93239cdc2 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/server/OffsetCommitTest.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/unit/kafka/server/OffsetCommitTest.scala
@@ -46,6 +46,13 @@ class OffsetCommitTest extends JUnit3Suite with ZooKeeperTestHarness {
   override def setUp() {
     super.setUp()
     val config: Properties = createBrokerConfig(1, brokerPort)
+    // TODO: Currently, when there is no topic in a cluster, the controller doesn't send any UpdateMetadataRequest to
+    // the broker. As a result, the live broker list in metadataCache is empty. This causes the ConsumerMetadataRequest
+    // to fail since if the number of live brokers is 0, we try to create the offset topic with the default
+    // offsets.topic.replication.factor of 3. The creation will fail since there is not enough live brokers. In order
+    // for the unit test to pass, overriding offsets.topic.replication.factor to 1 for now. When we fix KAFKA-1867, we
+    // need to remove the following config override.
+    config.put("offsets.topic.replication.factor", "1")
     val logDirPath = config.getProperty("log.dir")
     logDir = new File(logDirPath)
     time = new MockTime()