diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index fa8bafe4c2..917b9581a2 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-1.2-rc1
+1.2-beta3
  * make consistency level configurable in cqlsh (CASSANDRA-4829)
  * fix cqlsh rendering of blob fields (CASSANDRA-4970)
  * fix cqlsh DESCRIBE command (CASSANDRA-4913)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index e9b8e78edb..1f7526158b 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
     <property name="debuglevel" value="source,lines,vars"/>
 
     <!-- default version and SCM information -->
-    <property name="base.version" value="1.2.0-rc1"/>
+    <property name="base.version" value="1.2.0-beta3"/>
     <property name="scm.connection" value="scm:git://git.apache.org/cassandra.git"/>
     <property name="scm.developerConnection" value="scm:git://git.apache.org/cassandra.git"/>
     <property name="scm.url" value="http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf?p=cassandra.git;a=tree"/>
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 328159d811..3bb10aa74c 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-cassandra (1.2.0~rc1) unstable; urgency=low
+cassandra (1.2.0~beta3) unstable; urgency=low
 
-  * New RC release
+  * New beta release
 
- -- Sylvain Lebresne <slebresne@apache.org>  Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:13:11 +0100
+ -- Sylvain Lebresne <slebresne@apache.org>  Fri, 03 Dec 2012 10:13:11 +0100
 
 cassandra (1.2.0~beta2) unstable; urgency=low