diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4fc0eec6..6dc8e441 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
+PUBLISH=publish_weave publish_weavedns publish_weavetools
+
 .DEFAULT: all
-.PHONY: all update tests clean
+.PHONY: all update tests publish $(PUBLISH) clean
 
 # If you can use docker without being root, you can do "make SUDO="
 SUDO=sudo
@@ -55,6 +57,13 @@ $(WEAVETOOLS_EXPORT): tools/Dockerfile $(WEAVETOOLS_EXES)
 tests:
 	cd nameserver; go test -tags netgo
 
+$(PUBLISH): publish_%:
+	$(SUDO) docker tag  $(DOCKERHUB_USER)/$* $(DOCKERHUB_USER)/$*:$(WEAVE_VERSION)
+	$(SUDO) docker push $(DOCKERHUB_USER)/$*:$(WEAVE_VERSION)
+	$(SUDO) docker push $(DOCKERHUB_USER)/$*:latest
+
+publish: $(PUBLISH)
+
 clean:
 	-$(SUDO) docker rmi $(WEAVER_IMAGE) $(WEAVEDNS_IMAGE) $(WEAVETOOLS_IMAGE)
 	rm -f $(WEAVER_EXE) $(WEAVEDNS_EXE) $(WEAVER_EXPORT) $(WEAVEDNS_EXPORT) $(WEAVETOOLS_EXPORT)
diff --git a/bin/release b/bin/release
index 4c8a3112..185c0614 100755
--- a/bin/release
+++ b/bin/release
@@ -120,13 +120,8 @@ publish() {
 
     echo '** Sanity checks OK for publishing tag' $LATEST_TAG as $DOCKERHUB_USER/weave:$VERSION
 
-    for IMAGE in weave weavedns weavetools ; do
-        echo == Tagging $DOCKERHUB_USER/$IMAGE as $VERSION
-        $SUDO docker tag  $DOCKERHUB_USER/$IMAGE $DOCKERHUB_USER/$IMAGE:$VERSION
-        $SUDO docker push $DOCKERHUB_USER/$IMAGE:$VERSION
-        $SUDO docker push $DOCKERHUB_USER/$IMAGE:latest
-        echo "** Pushed $DOCKERHUB_USER/$IMAGE:$VERSION to docker hub"
-    done
+    echo "== Tagging and publishing images on docker hub as user $DOCKERHUB_USER"
+    make SUDO=$SUDO WEAVE_VERSION=$VERSION DOCKERHUB_USER=$DOCKERHUB_USER publish
 
     echo "== Creating GitHub release $RELEASE_NAME $VERSION"
     # This cannot be done as a draft because of a bug in