diff --git a/changelog.txt b/changelog.txt
index 1a62e6f1a..5efc1aa0b 100644
--- a/changelog.txt
+++ b/changelog.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+0.5.0a:
+Fixes
+ - Address crash experienced by some users while rendering any tile.
+ - Fix crash caused by loading a world with flywheel backend off.
+
 0.5.0:
 New
  - Added parallel batching backend, effectively a CPU instancer.
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index 84eb4d04f..fb86b8d59 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ org.gradle.jvmargs = -Xmx3G
 org.gradle.daemon = false
 
 # mod version info
-mod_version = 0.5.0
+mod_version = 0.5.0a
 mc_update_version = 1.18
 minecraft_version = 1.18.1
 forge_version = 39.0.8