diff --git a/0001-Fix-is_conn_error-for-Python-3.3-change-to-socket.er.patch b/0001-Fix-is_conn_error-for-Python-3.3-change-to-socket.er.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4479f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/0001-Fix-is_conn_error-for-Python-3.3-change-to-socket.er.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+From d20928c9d90e95147c6627c0dc3de31920e658b7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Adam Williamson <awilliam@redhat.com>
+Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2019 11:20:26 -0800
+Subject: [PATCH] Fix `is_conn_error()` for Python 3.3+ change to
+ `socket.error`
+
+In Python 3.3+, `socket.error` is no longer a distinct exception.
+It is - as the docs say - "A deprecated alias of OSError". This
+means that this check:
+
+`isinstance(e, socket.error)`
+
+is effectively equivalent to:
+
+`isinstance(e, OSError)`
+
+This is a problem, because `requests.exceptions.ConnectionError`
+(another exception type we handle later in `is_conn_error()`) is
+a subclass of `OSError` - so on Python 3 we never actually reach
+the block that's intended to handle that exception type. We hit
+the `isinstance(e, socket.error)` block at the start instead, and
+of course the exception doesn't have an `errno` attribute, so we
+just return `False` at that point.
+
+There are a few different ways we could fix this; this commit
+does it by ditching the `isinstance` checks, and dropping the
+shortcut `return False` bailout from the early block. We'll still
+ultimately return `False` unless the error is actually one of the
+other types we handle; it just costs a couple more `isinstance`
+checks.
+
+I don't think replacing the `isinstance socket.error` checks is
+really necessary at all. We can just check for an `errno` attr,
+and if there is one and it's one of the values we check for...
+that seems safe enough to treat as a connection error.
+
+This also changes the second check to be a check of `e2`, not
+`e` - I'm *fairly* sure this is what's actually intended, and
+the current code was a copy-paste error.
+
+Fixes: #1192
+
+Signed-off-by: Adam Williamson <awilliam@redhat.com>
+---
+ koji/__init__.py | 19 ++++++++++---------
+ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/koji/__init__.py b/koji/__init__.py
+index aba10ec1..c4fd4756 100644
+--- a/koji/__init__.py
++++ b/koji/__init__.py
+@@ -1978,11 +1978,13 @@ def is_cert_error(e):
+ 
+ def is_conn_error(e):
+     """Determine if an error seems to be from a dropped connection"""
+-    if isinstance(e, socket.error):
+-        if getattr(e, 'errno', None) in (errno.ECONNRESET, errno.ECONNABORTED, errno.EPIPE):
+-            return True
+-        # else
+-        return False
++    # This is intended for the case where e is a socket error.
++    # as `socket.error` is just an alias for `OSError` in Python 3
++    # there is no value to an `isinstance` check here; let's just
++    # assume that if the exception has an 'errno' and it's one of
++    # these values, this is a connection error.
++    if getattr(e, 'errno', None) in (errno.ECONNRESET, errno.ECONNABORTED, errno.EPIPE):
++        return True
+     if isinstance(e, six.moves.http_client.BadStatusLine):
+         return True
+     try:
+@@ -1994,10 +1996,9 @@ def is_conn_error(e):
+                 e3 = getattr(e2, 'args', [None, None])[1]
+                 if isinstance(e3, six.moves.http_client.BadStatusLine):
+                     return True
+-            if isinstance(e2, socket.error):
+-                # same check as unwrapped socket error
+-                if getattr(e, 'errno', None) in (errno.ECONNRESET, errno.ECONNABORTED, errno.EPIPE):
+-                    return True
++            # same check as unwrapped socket error
++            if getattr(e2, 'errno', None) in (errno.ECONNRESET, errno.ECONNABORTED, errno.EPIPE):
++                return True
+     except (TypeError, AttributeError):
+         pass
+     # otherwise
+-- 
+2.20.1
+
diff --git a/koji.spec b/koji.spec
index 0d68dda..48aad7c 100644
--- a/koji.spec
+++ b/koji.spec
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 
 Name: koji
 Version: 1.16.1
-Release: 2%{?dist}
+Release: 3%{?dist}
 # koji.ssl libs (from plague) are GPLv2+
 License: LGPLv2 and GPLv2+
 Summary: Build system tools
@@ -38,6 +38,12 @@ Group: Applications/System
 URL: https://pagure.io/koji/
 Source0: https://releases.pagure.org/koji/koji-%{version}.tar.bz2
 
+# Fix is_conn_error bug which commonly caused operations that wait a
+# long time to fail out prematurely on Python 3
+# https://pagure.io/koji/issue/1192
+# https://pagure.io/koji/pull-request/1203
+Patch0: 0001-Fix-is_conn_error-for-Python-3.3-change-to-socket.er.patch
+
 # Not upstreamable
 Patch100: fedora-config.patch
 
@@ -242,6 +248,7 @@ koji-web is a web UI to the Koji system.
 
 %prep
 %setup -q
+%patch0 -p1 -b .connerror
 %patch100 -p1 -b .fedoraconfig
 
 %build
@@ -433,6 +440,9 @@ fi
 %endif
 
 %changelog
+* Wed Jan 09 2019 Adam Williamson <awilliam@redhat.com> - 1.16.1-3
+- Backport fix for Python 3 connection failure bug (#1192, PR #1203)
+
 * Fri Sep 14 2018 Kevin Fenzi <kevin@scrye.com> - 1.16.1-2
 - Fix bad sed that caused python32 dep.