diff --git a/sys/conf/newvers.sh b/sys/conf/newvers.sh
index ac07bb077e1a..683a979f943d 100644
--- a/sys/conf/newvers.sh
+++ b/sys/conf/newvers.sh
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@
 
 TYPE="FreeBSD"
 REVISION="13.0"
-BRANCH=${BRANCH_OVERRIDE:-CURRENT}
+BRANCH="${BRANCH_OVERRIDE:-CURRENT}"
 RELEASE="${REVISION}-${BRANCH}"
 VERSION="${TYPE} ${RELEASE}"