diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 1232fe8329..e1d1d8ce2c 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
-4.0-beta4
+4.0-beta5
  * Fix DecimalDeserializer#toString OOM (CASSANDRA-14925)
+
+4.0-beta4
  * DROP COMPACT STORAGE should invalidate prepared statements still using CompactTableMetadata (CASSANDRA-16361)
  * Update default num_tokens to 16 and allocate_tokens_for_local_replication_factor to 3 (CASSANDRA-13701)
  * Remove use of String.intern() (CASSANDRA-15810)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 2c6988f2fe..4537f2045d 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
     <property name="debuglevel" value="source,lines,vars"/>
 
     <!-- default version and SCM information -->
-    <property name="base.version" value="4.0-beta4"/>
+    <property name="base.version" value="4.0-beta5"/>
     <property name="scm.connection" value="scm:https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf/cassandra.git"/>
     <property name="scm.developerConnection" value="scm:https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf/cassandra.git"/>
     <property name="scm.url" value="https://gitbox.apache.org/repos/asf?p=cassandra.git;a=tree"/>
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 71f5786516..aa8626380b 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+cassandra (4.0~beta5) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
+
+  * New release
+
+ -- Mick Semb Wever <mck@apache.org>  Fri, 18 Dec 2020 18:32:45 +0100
+
 cassandra (4.0~beta4) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * New release
diff --git a/doc/source/development/release_process.rst b/doc/source/development/release_process.rst
index fd86238d9c..a2bcf48db0 100644
--- a/doc/source/development/release_process.rst
+++ b/doc/source/development/release_process.rst
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ Update the codebase to point to the next development version::
     git checkout cassandra-<version-branch>
     edit build.xml          # update `<property name="base.version" value="…"/> `
     edit debian/changelog   # add entry for new version
-    edit CHANGES.txt        # add entry for new version
+    edit CHANGES.txt        # add entry for new version, move up any entries that were added after the release was cut and staged
     git commit -m "Increment version to <next-version>" build.xml debian/changelog CHANGES.txt
 
     # …and forward merge and push per normal procedure
@@ -245,7 +245,4 @@ As described in `When to Archive <http://www.apache.org/dev/release.html#when-to
 
 An example of removing old releases::
 
-    svn co https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/cassandra/ cassandra-dist
-    svn rm <previous_version> debian/pool/main/c/cassandra/<previous_version>*
-    svn st
-    # check and commit
\ No newline at end of file
+    svn rm https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/cassandra/<previous_version>
\ No newline at end of file