diff --git a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
index d0e27805739..287e91541d3 100644
--- a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
+++ b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
@@ -5,6 +5,6 @@
 	E-mail: \email{python-docs@python.org}
 }
 
-\date{\today}		% XXX update before release!
-\release{2.1 alpha}		% software release, not documentation
+\date{\today}			% XXX update before release!
+\release{2.1 beta 1}		% software release, not documentation
 \setshortversion{2.1}		% major.minor only for software