diff --git a/pkg/kgo/sink.go b/pkg/kgo/sink.go
index 49bff3b1..a40c6b7e 100644
--- a/pkg/kgo/sink.go
+++ b/pkg/kgo/sink.go
@@ -714,6 +714,8 @@ func (s *sink) handleReqRespBatch(
 
 	// Since we have received a response and we are the first batch, we can
 	// at this point re-enable failing from load errors.
+	//
+	// We do not need a lock since the owner is locked.
 	batch.canFailFromLoadErrs = true
 
 	// By default, we assume we errored. Non-error updates this back
@@ -1294,6 +1296,10 @@ func (recBuf *recBuf) bumpRepeatedLoadErr(err error) {
 	batch0 := recBuf.batches[0]
 	batch0.tries++
 
+	// We need to lock the batch as well because there could be a buffered
+	// request about to be written. Writing requests only grabs the batch
+	// mu, not the recBuf mu.
+	batch0.mu.Lock()
 	var (
 		canFail        = !recBuf.cl.idempotent() || batch0.canFailFromLoadErrs // we can only fail if we are not idempotent or if we have no outstanding requests
 		batch0Fail     = batch0.maybeFailErr(&recBuf.cl.cfg) != nil            // timeout, retries, or aborting
@@ -1303,6 +1309,8 @@ func (recBuf *recBuf) bumpRepeatedLoadErr(err error) {
 
 		willFail = canFail && (batch0Fail || !netErr && (!retryableKerr || retryableKerr && isUnknownLimit))
 	)
+	batch0.isFailingFromLoadErr = willFail
+	batch0.mu.Unlock()
 
 	recBuf.cl.cfg.logger.Log(LogLevelWarn, "produce partition load error, bumping error count on first stored batch",
 		"broker", logID(recBuf.sink.nodeID),
@@ -1316,6 +1324,7 @@ func (recBuf *recBuf) bumpRepeatedLoadErr(err error) {
 		"is_unknown_limit", isUnknownLimit,
 		"will_fail", willFail,
 	)
+
 	if willFail {
 		recBuf.failAllRecords(err)
 	}
@@ -1406,6 +1415,10 @@ type recBatch struct {
 	// request with this batch, and then reset it to true whenever we
 	// process a response.
 	canFailFromLoadErrs bool
+	// If we are going to fail the batch in bumpRepeatedLoadErr, we need to
+	// set this bool to true. There could be a concurrent request about to
+	// be written. See more comments below where this is used.
+	isFailingFromLoadErr bool
 
 	wireLength   int32 // tracks total size this batch would currently encode as, including length prefix
 	v1wireLength int32 // same as wireLength, but for message set v1
@@ -1958,7 +1971,7 @@ func (p *produceRequest) AppendTo(dst []byte) []byte {
 		for partition, batch := range partitions {
 			dst = kbin.AppendInt32(dst, partition)
 			batch.mu.Lock()
-			if batch.records == nil { // concurrent failAllRecords
+			if batch.records == nil || batch.isFailingFromLoadErr { // concurrent failAllRecords OR concurrent bumpRepeatedLoadErr
 				if flexible {
 					dst = kbin.AppendCompactNullableBytes(dst, nil)
 				} else {