diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 28ea45da7e3f058ba2f12da8727f000c9fc28e79..f608ec069f59003f41d65d64a0c8cfc3764adedc 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@
 # (this is same as gromacs)
 # Notice that "plumed --version" will return only 2.X
 # and "plumed --long-version" will return the full string
-2.3.0
+2.3b