Manually edit ./src/debian/changelog and add a new entry/change the version in the top-most entry to a distinct version. Run make package_bionic where bionic is the Ubuntu codename you want to test on. Afterwards you'll have a new .deb file in dist/.
Edit ./src/setup.py and change version to the version you want to release. Afterwards run make release, and run the commands it outputs.
We pin the nerve-tools version in puppet hieradata, so you can roll out new versions per environments/regions
Run make itest_bionic where bionic is the Ubuntu distribution to test for.