diff --git a/SPECS/qemu-kvm.spec b/SPECS/qemu-kvm.spec
index 41eaa6b..6a38277 100644
--- a/SPECS/qemu-kvm.spec
+++ b/SPECS/qemu-kvm.spec
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ Release: 16%{?rcrel}%{?dist}%{?cc_suffix}.1.alma.1.1
 # Epoch because we pushed a qemu-1.0 package. AIUI this can't ever be dropped
 # Epoch 15 used for RHEL 8
 # Epoch 17 used for RHEL 9 (due to release versioning offset in RHEL 8.5)
-Epoch: 17
+Epoch: 18
 License: GPLv2 and GPLv2+ and CC-BY
 URL: http://www.qemu.org/
 ExclusiveArch: x86_64 %{power64} aarch64 s390x