diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index a4dd970fd0..61275eaf5a 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -254,6 +254,7 @@ To make a new release, set your current working directory to the garden root dir
     * On a **Windows** machine, run `garden dev --hot=vote` in the `vote` example project.
         * Change a file in the `vote` service and verify that the hot reload was successful.
         * Open the dashboard, verify that the initial page loads without errors.
+    * On **macOS** or **Linux**, run the `./bin/test-release <version>` script. The script runs some simple tests to sanity check the release.
 5. Go to our Github [Releases page](https://github.com/garden-io/garden/releases) and click the **Edit** button for the draft just created from CI. Note that for drafts, a new one is always created instead of replacing a previous one.
 6. Write release notes. The notes should give an overview of the release and mention all relevant features. They should also **acknowledge all external contributors** and contain the changelog for that release.
     * To generate a changelog for just that tag, run `git-chglog <tag-name>`
diff --git a/bin/test-release.sh b/bin/test-release.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..8526e24ca3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/test-release.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+#!/bin/bash -e
+
+# Script that downloads a release based on the version argument, and runs some simple tests to sanity check it.
+
+garden_root=$(cd `dirname $0` && cd .. && pwd)
+version=$1
+
+if [ ! "$version" ]; then
+  echo "Version is missing"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+download_release() {
+  if [ "$(uname -s)" = "Darwin" ]; then
+    os=macos
+  else
+    os=`ldd 2>&1|grep musl >/dev/null && echo "alpine" || echo "linux"`
+  fi
+
+  platform=${os}-amd64
+  filename="garden-${version}-${platform}.tar.gz"
+  url="https://github.com/garden-io/garden/releases/download/${version}/${filename}"
+  dir=${HOME}/.garden-release
+  target_path=${dir}/bin
+
+  echo "→ Downloading release ${version} to ${dir}"
+  rm -rf $target_path
+  mkdir -p $target_path
+  cd $dir
+  curl -sLO $url
+  echo "→ Extracting to ${target_path}"
+  tar -xzf $filename
+  rm $filename
+  cp -r ${platform}/* bin/
+  chmod +x bin/garden
+  rm -rf $platform
+  cd $garden_root
+  return 0
+}
+
+test_release() {
+  # Mac doesn't have a timeout command so we alias to gtimeout (or exit if gtimeout is not installed).
+  if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
+    if ! [ -x "$(command -v gtimeout)" ]; then
+      echo "Command gtimeout is missing - You can install it with 'brew install gtimeout' on macOS"
+      return 1
+    else
+      alias timeout=gtimeout
+    fi
+  fi
+
+  if [ ! "$version" ]; then
+    echo "Version is missing"
+    return 1
+  fi
+
+  garden_release=${HOME}/.garden-release/bin/garden
+
+  echo "→ Verify version"
+  release_version=$(${garden_release} --version)
+
+  echo $release_version
+
+  if [ "$version" != "v$release_version" ]; then
+    echo "Versions don't match, ${version} and ${release_version}"
+    return 1
+  fi
+
+  cd examples/demo-project
+  echo ""
+  echo "→ Running 'garden build' in demo project"
+  echo ""
+  ${garden_release} build
+  echo ""
+  echo "→ Running 'garden deploy' in demo project"
+  echo ""
+  ${garden_release} deploy
+  echo ""
+  echo "→ Running 'garden dev in' demo project - exits after 1 minute"
+  echo ""
+  # Can't call the gr alias with
+  gtimeout 1m ${garden_release} dev
+
+  echo ""
+  echo "→ Running 'garden dev' in vote project - exits after 2 minutes, use the chance to change services and test the dashboard"
+  echo "→ Try e.g. to change the status in the POST method in this file: ${garden_root}/examples/vote/api/app.py"
+  echo "→ It should break the integ test"
+  echo ""
+  cd ..
+  cd vote
+  gtimeout 2m ${garden_release} dev
+
+  echo ""
+  echo "→ Running 'garden deploy --hot=node-service' in hot-reload project - exits after 1 minute, use the chance to test if hot-reload works"
+  echo "→ Try e.g. to update this file: ${garden_root}/examples/hot-reload/node-service/app.js"
+  echo ""
+  cd ..
+  cd hot-reload
+  gtimeout 1m ${garden_release} deploy --hot node-service
+
+  # Remove the alias we set above
+  if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
+    unalias timeout
+  fi
+
+  cd $garden_root
+  echo "Done!"
+}
+
+download_release
+test_release