diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8d35512..06aff07 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # EasyAvro  [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/axiom-data-science/easyavro.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/axiom-data-science/easyavro)
 
-A python helper for producing and consuming `avro` schema'd Kafka topics. Simplicity and the ability to execute a function for each message consumed is the top priority.
+A python helper for producing and consuming Kafka topics. Simplicity and the ability to execute a function for each message consumed is the top priority.
 
 
 ## Installation
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 4a36342..fcdb2e1 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-3.0.0
+4.0.0
diff --git a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
index 347df61..3c762fb 100644
--- a/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda-recipe/meta.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 package:
   name: easyavro
-  version: "3.0.0"
+  version: "4.0.0"
 
 source:
   path: ../
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ requirements:
   run:
     - python-confluent-kafka >=1.1.0,<2.0.0
     - avro
-    - python-avro
+    - python-avro <=1.8.2
     - requests
     - msgpack-python
 
@@ -31,4 +31,4 @@ test:
 about:
   home: https://github.com/axiom-data-science/easyavro
   license: MIT License
-  summary: "A python helper for producing and consuming avro schema'd Kafka topics"
+  summary: "A python helper for producing and consuming Kafka topics"
diff --git a/easyavro/__init__.py b/easyavro/__init__.py
index 7c0ddd0..86fa753 100644
--- a/easyavro/__init__.py
+++ b/easyavro/__init__.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from .consumer import EasyAvroConsumer, EasyConsumer
 from .producer import EasyAvroProducer, EasyProducer, schema
 
-__version__ = "3.0.0"
+__version__ = "4.0.0"
 
 
 __all__ = [