diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index a9f91985..744aa04c 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
  kombu - AMQP Messaging Framework for Python
 #############################################
 
-:Version: 0.9.7
+:Version: 1.0.0b1
 
 Synopsis
 ========
diff --git a/kombu/__init__.py b/kombu/__init__.py
index 6256d657..6198c006 100644
--- a/kombu/__init__.py
+++ b/kombu/__init__.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """AMQP Messaging Framework for Python"""
-VERSION = (0, 9, 7)
-__version__ = ".".join(map(str, VERSION))
+VERSION = (1, 0, 0, "b1")
+__version__ = ".".join(map(str, VERSION[0:3])) + "".join(VERSION[3:])
 __author__ = "Ask Solem"
 __contact__ = "ask@celeryproject.org"
 __homepage__ = "http://github.com/ask/kombu/"