diff --git a/lib/liquid.rb b/lib/liquid.rb
index 82676d0..cb84a6e 100644
--- a/lib/liquid.rb
+++ b/lib/liquid.rb
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ module Liquid
   VariableParser              = /\[[^\]]+\]|#{VariableSegment}+\??/o
 end
 
+require "liquid/version"
 require 'liquid/drop'
 require 'liquid/extensions'
 require 'liquid/errors'
diff --git a/lib/liquid/version.rb b/lib/liquid/version.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d251519
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/liquid/version.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+module Liquid
+  VERSION = "2.5.0"
+end
diff --git a/liquid.gemspec b/liquid.gemspec
index 29ac4ea..0e909ca 100644
--- a/liquid.gemspec
+++ b/liquid.gemspec
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 # encoding: utf-8
+lib = File.expand_path('../lib/', __FILE__)
+$:.unshift lib unless $:.include?(lib)
+
+require "liquid/version"
 
 Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.name        = "liquid"
-  s.version     = "2.5.0"
+  s.version     = Liquid::VERSION
   s.platform    = Gem::Platform::RUBY
   s.summary     = "A secure, non-evaling end user template engine with aesthetic markup."
   s.authors     = ["Tobias Luetke"]