diff --git a/doc/release.md b/doc/release.md
index 12bfe5a1487e8..9d69fa8a7f69a 100644
--- a/doc/release.md
+++ b/doc/release.md
@@ -63,7 +63,14 @@ to the beta Rust release. The remerge is then necessary, to make sure that the
 Clippy commit, that was used by the now stable Rust release, persists in the
 tree of the Clippy repository.
 
-To find out if this step is necessary run `git branch master --contains beta`.
+To find out if this step is necessary run
+
+```bash
+# Assumes that the local master branch is up-to-date
+$ git fetch upstream
+$ git branch master --contains upstream/beta
+```
+
 If this command outputs `master`, this step is **not** necessary.
 
 ```bash