diff --git a/build_library/set_lsb_release b/build_library/set_lsb_release
index 49fea724b5..b29e25e213 100755
--- a/build_library/set_lsb_release
+++ b/build_library/set_lsb_release
@@ -90,14 +90,12 @@ EOF
 # Aaaannd for the new systemd world order
 # os-release provides a separate build-id field, so split it from version
 OS_ID=$(tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' <<<"$COREOS_VERSION_NAME")
-OS_VERSION_ID="${COREOS_VERSION_STRING%%+*}"
-OS_BUILD_ID="${COREOS_VERSION_STRING#*+}"
 sudo_clobber "${ROOT_FS_DIR}/etc/os-release" <<EOF
 NAME=$COREOS_VERSION_NAME
 ID=$OS_ID
 VERSION=$COREOS_VERSION_STRING
-VERSION_ID=$OS_VERSION_ID
-BUILD_ID=$OS_BUILD_ID
+VERSION_ID=$COREOS_VERSION_ID
+BUILD_ID=$COREOS_BUILD_ID
 PRETTY_NAME="$COREOS_VERSION_NAME $COREOS_VERSION_DESCRIPTION"
 ANSI_COLOR="1;32"
 HOME_URL="http://www.coreos.com/"
diff --git a/common.sh b/common.sh
index c7201ea148..051db8d713 100644
--- a/common.sh
+++ b/common.sh
@@ -314,13 +314,15 @@ source "$COREOS_VERSION_FILE" || die "Cannot source version.txt"
 # Official builds must set COREOS_OFFICIAL=1 to use an official version.
 # Unofficial builds always appended the date/time as a build identifier.
 # Also do not alter the version if using an alternate version.txt path.
+COREOS_BUILD_ID=""
 if [[ ${COREOS_OFFICIAL:-0} -ne 1 &&
     "${COREOS_VERSION_FILE}" =~ /\.repo/manifests/version.txt ]]; then
-  COREOS_PATCH="${COREOS_PATCH}+$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M)"
+  COREOS_BUILD_ID=$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M)
 fi
 
 # Full version string.
-COREOS_VERSION_STRING="${COREOS_BUILD}.${COREOS_BRANCH}.${COREOS_PATCH}"
+COREOS_VERSION_ID="${COREOS_BUILD}.${COREOS_BRANCH}.${COREOS_PATCH}"
+COREOS_VERSION_STRING="${COREOS_VERSION_ID}${COREOS_BUILD_ID++}${COREOS_BUILD_ID}"
 
 # Calculate what today's build version should be, used by release
 # scripts to provide a reasonable default value. The value is the number
diff --git a/tag_release b/tag_release
index cacb19cd8a..dee2565ad4 100755
--- a/tag_release
+++ b/tag_release
@@ -7,15 +7,12 @@
 SCRIPT_ROOT=$(dirname $(readlink -f "$0"))
 . "${SCRIPT_ROOT}/common.sh" || exit 1
 
-# Default to the current release for the new SDK version (minus dev build id)
-DEFAULT_SDK="${COREOS_VERSION_STRING%+*}"
-
 DEFINE_integer build "${TODAYS_VERSION}" \
     "Branch name (aka 'build'), should be days since 2013-7-1"
 DEFINE_integer branch 0 "Branch revision, normally 0"
 DEFINE_integer patch 0 "Branch patch id, normally 0"
 DEFINE_string track "dev-channel" "Set the given track to this new branch"
-DEFINE_string sdk_version "${DEFAULT_SDK}" \
+DEFINE_string sdk_version "${COREOS_VERSION_ID}" \
     "Set the SDK version to use. (current: ${COREOS_SDK_VERSION})"
 DEFINE_boolean push ${FLAGS_FALSE} "Push to public manifest repository."
 DEFINE_string remote "origin" "Remote name or URL to push to."