diff --git a/allel/__init__.py b/allel/__init__.py
index f7a10eec..d6dbf610 100644
--- a/allel/__init__.py
+++ b/allel/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function, division
 
 
-__version__ = '0.9.0.dev0'
+__version__ = '0.9.0'
 
 
 import allel.model as model
diff --git a/release.txt b/release.txt
index 4c2021db..6a7a2803 100644
--- a/release.txt
+++ b/release.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-git checkout master
-git merge vX.X
 tox
 # remove .devN from __version__
 sed -i -e 's/.dev[0-9]*//' allel/__init__.py
@@ -10,6 +8,9 @@ git commit -a -m v$version
 git tag -a v$version -m v$version
 git push
 git push --tags
+# merge into master
+git checkout master
+git merge vX.X
 # update pypi
 python setup.py register sdist
 twine upload dist/scikit-allel-${version}.tar.gz