diff --git a/sdks/python/apache_beam/runners/dataflow/internal/dependency.py b/sdks/python/apache_beam/runners/dataflow/internal/dependency.py
index 892d9f94d1ee..e69c8d7dac50 100644
--- a/sdks/python/apache_beam/runners/dataflow/internal/dependency.py
+++ b/sdks/python/apache_beam/runners/dataflow/internal/dependency.py
@@ -72,7 +72,8 @@
 
 # Update this version to the next version whenever there is a change that will
 # require changes to the execution environment.
-BEAM_CONTAINER_VERSION = '2.0.0'
+# This should be in the beam-[version]-[date] format, date is optional.
+BEAM_CONTAINER_VERSION = 'beam-2.1.0-20170518'
 
 # Standard file names used for staging files.
 WORKFLOW_TARBALL_FILE = 'workflow.tar.gz'