diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 961037796a..fceed3a84a 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ COPY .git/HEAD .git/HEAD
 COPY .git/refs/heads/. .git/refs/heads
 RUN mkdir -p .git/objects
 COPY Makefile Makefile
-COPY OLM_VERSION OLM_VERSION
 COPY pkg pkg
 COPY vendor vendor
 COPY go.mod go.mod
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 98632a27fb..ca073a3727 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ GO := GO111MODULE=on GOFLAGS="$(MOD_FLAGS)" go
 GINKGO := $(GO) run github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2/ginkgo
 BINDATA := $(GO) run github.com/go-bindata/go-bindata/v3/go-bindata
 GIT_COMMIT := $(shell git rev-parse HEAD)
+GIT_VERSION := $(shell git describe --dirty --tags --always)
+GIT_TAG := $(shell git describe --tags --abbrev=0)
 
 # Phony prerequisite for targets that rely on the go build cache to determine staleness.
 .PHONY: build test clean vendor \
@@ -98,7 +100,7 @@ build-util: bin/cpb
 bin/cpb: FORCE
 	CGO_ENABLED=0 $(arch_flags) go build $(MOD_FLAGS) -ldflags '-extldflags "-static"' -o $@ ./util/cpb
 
-$(CMDS): version_flags=-ldflags "-X $(PKG)/pkg/version.GitCommit=$(GIT_COMMIT) -X $(PKG)/pkg/version.OLMVersion=`cat OLM_VERSION`"
+$(CMDS): version_flags=-ldflags "-X $(PKG)/pkg/version.GitCommit=$(GIT_COMMIT) -X $(PKG)/pkg/version.OLMVersion=$(GIT_VERSION)"
 $(CMDS):
 	$(arch_flags) go $(build_cmd) $(MOD_FLAGS) $(version_flags) -tags $(BUILD_TAGS) -o bin/$(shell basename $@) $@
 
@@ -222,9 +224,7 @@ verify-manifests: manifests
 
 verify: verify-codegen verify-mockgen verify-manifests
 
-# before running release, bump the version in OLM_VERSION and push to master,
-# then tag those builds in quay with the version in OLM_VERSION
-release: ver=v$(shell cat OLM_VERSION)
+release: ver=$(GIT_TAG)
 release: manifests
 	@echo "Generating the $(ver) release"
 	docker pull $(IMAGE_REPO):$(ver)
diff --git a/OLM_VERSION b/OLM_VERSION
deleted file mode 100644
index 1cf0537c34..0000000000
--- a/OLM_VERSION
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-0.19.0