diff --git a/lib/galaxy/version.py b/lib/galaxy/version.py
index dfc7abc79c4..5272f14f6d6 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/version.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/version.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 VERSION_MAJOR = "16.01"
-VERSION_MINOR = "dev"
+VERSION_MINOR = "rc1"
 VERSION = VERSION_MAJOR + ('.' + VERSION_MINOR if VERSION_MINOR else '')