diff --git a/curl.spec b/curl.spec
index bc5744a..d5b9462 100644
--- a/curl.spec
+++ b/curl.spec
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Summary: A utility for getting files from remote servers (FTP, HTTP, and others)
 Name: curl
 Version: 7.78.0
-Release: 2%{?dist}
+Release: 3%{?dist}
 License: MIT
 Source0: https://curl.se/download/%{name}-%{version}.tar.xz
 Source1: https://curl.se/download/%{name}-%{version}.tar.xz.asc
@@ -107,7 +107,8 @@ Requires: libcurl%{?_isa} >= %{version}-%{release}
 
 # require at least the version of openssl-libs that we were built against,
 # to ensure that we have the necessary symbols available (#1462184, #1462211)
-%global openssl_version %(pkg-config --modversion openssl 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+# (we need to translate 3.0.0-alpha16 -> 3.0.0-0.alpha16 and 3.0.0-beta1 -> 3.0.0-0.beta1 though)
+%global openssl_version %({ pkg-config --modversion openssl 2>/dev/null || echo 0;} | sed 's|-|-0.|')
 
 %description
 curl is a command line tool for transferring data with URL syntax, supporting
@@ -367,6 +368,9 @@ rm -f ${RPM_BUILD_ROOT}%{_libdir}/libcurl.la
 %{_libdir}/libcurl.so.4.[0-9].[0-9].minimal
 
 %changelog
+* Fri Jul 23 2021 Kamil Dudka <kdudka@redhat.com> - 7.78.0-3
+- make explicit dependency on openssl work with alpha/beta builds of openssl
+
 * Wed Jul 21 2021 Fedora Release Engineering <releng@fedoraproject.org> - 7.78.0-2
 - Rebuilt for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_35_Mass_Rebuild