diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/lammps/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/lammps/package.py
index 17147b69ab..7c14dca283 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/lammps/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/lammps/package.py
@@ -28,11 +28,15 @@
 
 class Lammps(CMakePackage):
     """LAMMPS stands for Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively
-    Parallel Simulator."""
+    Parallel Simulator. This package uses patch releases, not
+    stable release.
+    See https://github.com/LLNL/spack/pull/5342 for a detailed
+    discussion.
+    """
     homepage = "http://lammps.sandia.gov/"
-    url      = "https://github.com/lammps/lammps/archive/stable_01Sep2017.tar.gz"
+    url      = "https://github.com/lammps/lammps/archive/patch_1Sep2017.tar.gz"
 
-    version('20170901', 'c498680052f80c6ddb880052ad369af0')
+    version('20170901', '767e7f07289663f033474dfe974974e7')
 
     def url_for_version(self, version):
         vdate = dt.datetime.strptime(str(version), "%Y%m%d")