diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 1fa63ae55..6c13a9ff3 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   
 	<groupId>io.strimzi</groupId>
 	<artifactId>kafka-bridge</artifactId>
-	<version>0.18.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+	<version>0.18.0-RC1</version>
 
 	<name>kafka-bridge</name>
 	<description>Apache Kafka bridge</description>
diff --git a/release.version b/release.version
index 4e57392a1..6fe0b9723 100644
--- a/release.version
+++ b/release.version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.18.0-SNAPSHOT
+0.18.0-RC1