diff --git a/build/release/release.sh b/build/release/release.sh
index 8bb5c1e4..5e4fa518 100755
--- a/build/release/release.sh
+++ b/build/release/release.sh
@@ -36,6 +36,13 @@ else
         LND_VERSION="v${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
         echo "version: $LND_VERSION"
 
+        # If tag contains a release candidate suffix, append this suffix to the
+        # lnd reported version before we compare.
+        RC_REGEX="-rc[0-9]+$"
+        if [[ $TAG =~ $RC_REGEX ]]; then 
+            LND_VERSION+=${BASH_REMATCH[0]}
+        fi
+
         # Match git tag with lnd version.
         if [[ $TAG != $LND_VERSION ]]; then
             echo "lnd version $LND_VERSION does not match tag $TAG"
diff --git a/build/version.go b/build/version.go
index cc429e47..af068c44 100644
--- a/build/version.go
+++ b/build/version.go
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ const semanticAlphabet = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqr
 // versioning 2.0.0 spec (http://semver.org/).
 const (
 	appMajor uint = 0
-	appMinor uint = 8
-	appPatch uint = 2
+	appMinor uint = 9
+	appPatch uint = 0
 
 	// appPreRelease MUST only contain characters from semanticAlphabet
 	// per the semantic versioning spec.