diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a1b5b39e47..d28a42380d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-## UNRELEASED
+## 0.26.0-beta2 (May 06, 2021)
 
 BREAKING CHANGES:
 * Connect: Add a security context to the init copy container and the envoy sidecar and ensure they
diff --git a/version/version.go b/version/version.go
index f045c07543..fa9538222c 100644
--- a/version/version.go
+++ b/version/version.go
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ var (
 	// A pre-release marker for the version. If this is "" (empty string)
 	// then it means that it is a final release. Otherwise, this is a pre-release
 	// such as "dev" (in development), "beta", "rc1", etc.
-	VersionPrerelease = "dev"
+	VersionPrerelease = "beta2"
 )
 
 // GetHumanVersion composes the parts of the version in a way that's suitable