diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index c5666219a..dd715b8ba 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,24 @@
+Release 1.7.4 (in development)
+==============================
+
+Dependencies
+------------
+
+Incompatible changes
+--------------------
+
+Deprecated
+----------
+
+Features added
+--------------
+
+Bugs fixed
+----------
+
+Testing
+--------
+
 Release 1.7.3 (released Apr 23, 2018)
 =====================================
 
diff --git a/sphinx/__init__.py b/sphinx/__init__.py
index b1fb31b26..28da450cb 100644
--- a/sphinx/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/__init__.py
@@ -31,13 +31,13 @@ if 'PYTHONWARNINGS' not in os.environ:
 warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', "'U' mode is deprecated",
                         DeprecationWarning, module='docutils.io')
 
-__version__ = '1.7.3'
-__released__ = '1.7.3'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
+__version__ = '1.7.4+'
+__released__ = '1.7.4'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
 
 # version info for better programmatic use
 # possible values for 3rd element: 'alpha', 'beta', 'rc', 'final'
 # 'final' has 0 as the last element
-version_info = (1, 7, 3, 'final', 0)
+version_info = (1, 7, 4, 'beta', 0)
 
 package_dir = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))