diff --git a/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java b/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java
index 7efec6a18ed..8a29b1bdac3 100644
--- a/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java
+++ b/jetty-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/server/Server.java
@@ -343,6 +343,9 @@ public class Server extends HandlerWrapper implements Attributes
         ShutdownMonitor.getInstance().start(); // initialize
 
         LOG.info("jetty-" + getVersion());
+        if (!Jetty.STABLE)
+            LOG.warn("THIS IS NOT A STABLE RELEASE! DO NOT USE IN PRODUCTION!");
+        
         HttpGenerator.setJettyVersion(HttpConfiguration.SERVER_VERSION);
         MultiException mex=new MultiException();
 
diff --git a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/Jetty.java b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/Jetty.java
index 39f18576130..10e42ef82a5 100644
--- a/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/Jetty.java
+++ b/jetty-util/src/main/java/org/eclipse/jetty/util/Jetty.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ public class Jetty
 {
     public static final String VERSION;
     public static final String POWERED_BY;
+    public static final boolean STABLE;
 
     static
     {
@@ -34,6 +35,14 @@ public class Jetty
             VERSION = System.getProperty("jetty.version", "9.3.z-SNAPSHOT");
         
         POWERED_BY="<a href=\"http://eclipse.org/jetty\">Powered by Jetty:// "+VERSION+"</a>";
+        
+        boolean stable=true;
+        for (char c: VERSION.toCharArray())
+        {
+            if (c!='.' && !Character.isDigit(c))
+                stable=false;
+        }
+        STABLE=stable;
     }
 
     private Jetty()