diff --git a/kafka/coordinator/consumer.py b/kafka/coordinator/consumer.py
index 2d04529a4..3f834ccf4 100644
--- a/kafka/coordinator/consumer.py
+++ b/kafka/coordinator/consumer.py
@@ -696,7 +696,7 @@ def _send_offset_commit_request(self, offsets):
                 self.group_id,
                 generation.generation_id,
                 generation.member_id,
-                OffsetCommitRequest[version].DEFAULT_RETENTION_TIME,
+                -1, # default retention time
                 [(
                     topic, [(
                         partition,