diff --git a/.gemspec b/.gemspec
index dfe92fbc8f8..564894372cb 100644
--- a/.gemspec
+++ b/.gemspec
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 
 Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.name = "puppet"
-  version = "8.5.0x"
+  version = "8.6.0"
   mdata = version.match(/(\d+\.\d+\.\d+)/)
   s.version = mdata ? mdata[1] : version
 
diff --git a/lib/puppet/version.rb b/lib/puppet/version.rb
index 7fe9a20cd86..aa5896a4815 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/version.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/version.rb
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 # Raketasks and such to set the version based on the output of `git describe`
 
 module Puppet
-  PUPPETVERSION = '8.5.0x'
+  PUPPETVERSION = '8.6.0'
 
   ##
   # version is a public API method intended to always provide a fast and