diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8ff8036e..3fd63b0f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -41,3 +41,5 @@ Alternatively you can provide a custom path to the properties file using `-Dprop
 If your Kafka is secured you will need to enable the security configuration options in your properties file.
 
 To increase the logging level to debug provide a system property at start time: `-Dlog.level=debug`.
+
+To increase the Kafka client logging level to info provide a system property at start time: `-Dlog.level.kafka=info`.
diff --git a/kafka.properties b/kafka.properties
index c1f4d6e6..5905f0f4 100644
--- a/kafka.properties
+++ b/kafka.properties
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ bootstrap.servers=localhost:9092
 ###################################################################
 group.id=my_group
 auto.offset.reset=earliest
-enable.auto.commit=false
 key.deserializer=org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer
 value.deserializer=org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.StringDeserializer
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/kafka/vertx/demo/WebSocketServer.java b/src/main/java/kafka/vertx/demo/WebSocketServer.java
index 6a2c230d..0546c312 100644
--- a/src/main/java/kafka/vertx/demo/WebSocketServer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/kafka/vertx/demo/WebSocketServer.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import io.vertx.ext.web.handler.StaticHandler;
 import io.vertx.kafka.client.common.TopicPartition;
 import io.vertx.kafka.client.consumer.KafkaConsumer;
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerConfig;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
@@ -44,6 +45,8 @@ public void start(Promise<Void> startPromise) {
     String propertiesPath = System.getProperty(Main.PROPERTIES_PATH_ENV_NAME, Main.DEFAULT_PROPERTIES_PATH);
     Main.loadKafkaConfig(vertx, propertiesPath)
       .compose(config -> {
+        // Auto commit as this is a demo app
+        config.put(ConsumerConfig.ENABLE_AUTO_COMMIT_CONFIG, true);
         kafkaConfig = config.mapTo(HashMap.class);
         return startWebSocket(router);
       })
diff --git a/src/main/resources/logback.xml b/src/main/resources/logback.xml
index 10f29c9e..4e33611a 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/logback.xml
+++ b/src/main/resources/logback.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 
   <logger name="io.netty" level="warn"/>
   <logger name="io.vertx" level="info"/>
-  <logger name="org.apache.kafka" level="error"/>
+  <logger name="org.apache.kafka" level="${log.level.kafka:-error}"/>
   <logger name="org.apache.kafka.clients.NetworkClient" level="warn"/>
 
   <root level="${log.level:-info}">