diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 04fdb7e7..fe4686b4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 Release $next
 =============
 
+
+Release 1.8.1 (2016-10-24)
+==========================
+
 * Sessions have a new option save_accessed_time which defaults to true for
   backwards compatibility. Set to false to tell beaker not to update
   _accessed_time if the session hasn't been changed, for non-cookie sessions
diff --git a/beaker/__init__.py b/beaker/__init__.py
index b2809757..e8b6b090 100644
--- a/beaker/__init__.py
+++ b/beaker/__init__.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = '1.8.0'
+__version__ = '1.8.1'
diff --git a/beaker/docs/conf.py b/beaker/docs/conf.py
index 7bc08415..ebf4fbbf 100644
--- a/beaker/docs/conf.py
+++ b/beaker/docs/conf.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
 # The short X.Y version.
 version = '1.8'
 # The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
-release = '1.8.0'
+release = '1.8.1'
 
 # The language for content autogenerated by Sphinx. Refer to documentation
 # for a list of supported languages.