diff --git a/scripts/release.sh b/scripts/release.sh
index e14e83bd4..3a52fa8ea 100755
--- a/scripts/release.sh
+++ b/scripts/release.sh
@@ -109,12 +109,9 @@ function check_tag_correct() {
     tapd_version="v${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
     green "version: $tapd_version"
 
-    # If tag contains a release candidate suffix, append this suffix to the
-    # tapd reported version before we compare.
-    RC_REGEX="-rc[0-9]+$"
-    if [[ $tag =~ $RC_REGEX ]]; then
-      tapd_version+=${BASH_REMATCH[0]}
-    fi
+    # If the tapd reported version contains a suffix, remove it, so we can match
+    # the tag properly.
+    tapd_version=$(echo "$tapd_version" | sed -e 's/-\(alpha\|beta\)\(\.rc[0-9]\+\)\?//g')
 
     # Match git tag with tapd version.
     if [[ $tag != "${tapd_version}" ]]; then
diff --git a/version.go b/version.go
index b5bbe4c49..e40d4a785 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.rc1"
+	AppPreRelease = "alpha"
 
 	// defaultAgentName is the default name of the software that is added as
 	// the first part of the user agent string.