diff --git a/pkg/kgo/producer.go b/pkg/kgo/producer.go
index 8aa5ee51..d82bead3 100644
--- a/pkg/kgo/producer.go
+++ b/pkg/kgo/producer.go
@@ -517,8 +517,6 @@ func (cl *Client) waitUnknownTopic(
 	// unknown topic map is still the same.
 	p := &cl.producer
 
-	p.topicsMu.Lock()
-	defer p.topicsMu.Unlock()
 	p.unknownTopicsMu.Lock()
 	defer p.unknownTopicsMu.Unlock()
 
@@ -529,20 +527,25 @@ func (cl *Client) waitUnknownTopic(
 	cl.cfg.logger.Log(LogLevelInfo, "unknown topic wait failed, done retrying, failing all records", "topic", topic)
 
 	delete(p.unknownTopics, topic)
-	cl.deleteUnknownTopic(topic, unknown, err)
+	cl.failUnknownTopicRecords(topic, unknown, err)
 }
 
-// Called under both topic and unknown mu's, this clears the topic from the
-// producer and finishes all buffered promises.
+// Called under the unknown mu, this finishes promises for an unknown topic.
 //
-// We do not need to clear recBufs in sinks when deleting unknown topics
-// because unknown topics implies that partitions were never loaded, thus no
-// recBufs in sinks.
-func (cl *Client) deleteUnknownTopic(topic string, unknown *unknownTopicProduces, err error) {
-	topics := cl.producer.topics.clone()
-	delete(topics, topic)
-	cl.producer.topics.storeData(topics)
-
+// We do not delete from the producer's topics due to potential concurrent
+// metadata updating issues: if the metadata has an active request loading for
+// a topic we are actively deleting now, and that request finally loads the
+// topic successfully, it will create recBuf pointers that will not be cleaned
+// up.
+//
+// We could work around this using the same blockingMetadataFn type logic that
+// we use when unsetting a consumer, but it's more finnicky for a producer
+// because we want to knife out a single topic.
+//
+// Leaving a topic buffered even if we failed it as unknown should be of no
+// consequence because clients should not really be producing to loads of
+// unknown topics.
+func (cl *Client) failUnknownTopicRecords(topic string, unknown *unknownTopicProduces, err error) {
 	go func() {
 		for _, pr := range unknown.buffered {
 			cl.finishRecordPromise(pr, err)
diff --git a/pkg/kgo/topics_and_partitions.go b/pkg/kgo/topics_and_partitions.go
index e76ca369..4543f265 100644
--- a/pkg/kgo/topics_and_partitions.go
+++ b/pkg/kgo/topics_and_partitions.go
@@ -99,8 +99,6 @@ func (cl *Client) storePartitionsUpdate(topic string, l *topicPartitions, lv *to
 
 	p := &cl.producer
 
-	p.topicsMu.Lock()
-	defer p.topicsMu.Unlock()
 	p.unknownTopicsMu.Lock()
 	defer p.unknownTopicsMu.Unlock()
 
@@ -151,7 +149,7 @@ func (cl *Client) storePartitionsUpdate(topic string, l *topicPartitions, lv *to
 	close(unknown.wait) // allow waiting goroutine to quit
 
 	if len(lv.partitions) == 0 {
-		cl.deleteUnknownTopic(topic, unknown, lv.loadErr)
+		cl.failUnknownTopicRecords(topic, unknown, lv.loadErr)
 	} else {
 		for _, pr := range unknown.buffered {
 			cl.doPartitionRecord(l, lv, pr)