diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index f8a438c8d2..019beeac55 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-4.1
+4.1-alpha1
  * Fix leak of non-standard Java types in our Exceptions as clients using JMX are unable to handle them.
    Remove useless validation that leads to unnecessary additional read of cassandra.yaml on startup (CASSANDRA-17638)
  * Fix repair_request_timeout_in_ms and remove paxos_auto_repair_threshold_mb (CASSANDRA-17557)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 343f7e87a0..21d78a690a 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
     <property name="debuglevel" value="source,lines,vars"/>
 
     <!-- default version and SCM information -->
-    <property name="base.version" value="4.1"/>
+    <property name="base.version" value="4.1-alpha1"/>
     <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 53ea788890..961daa7274 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-cassandra (4.1) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
+cassandra (4.1~alpha1) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
 
   * New release