diff --git a/version.go b/version.go
index 2bb292896..c3e6eb1d1 100644
--- a/version.go
+++ b/version.go
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ const (
 
 	// AppPreRelease MUST only contain characters from semanticAlphabet
 	// per the semantic versioning spec.
-	AppPreRelease = "alpha"
+	AppPreRelease = "alpha.rc1"
 
 	// defaultAgentName is the default name of the software that is added as
 	// the first part of the user agent string.