diff --git a/playbooks/manual/epel-minor-release/koji-release-tags.yml b/playbooks/manual/epel-minor-release/koji-release-tags.yml
index 140d6b2031..833af72144 100644
--- a/playbooks/manual/epel-minor-release/koji-release-tags.yml
+++ b/playbooks/manual/epel-minor-release/koji-release-tags.yml
@@ -45,10 +45,13 @@
         external_repos:
           - repo: "c{{ release_major }}-baseos"
             priority: 10
+            merge_mode: bare
           - repo: "c{{ release_major }}-appstream"
             priority: 20
+            merge_mode: bare
           - repo: "c{{ release_major }}-crb"
             priority: 30
+            merge_mode: bare
 
     - name: Remove external repos from the old release base tag
       ansible.builtin.command: koji --profile {{ koji_profile }} remove-external-repo {{ item }} epel{{ old_release }}-base
@@ -65,10 +68,13 @@
         external_repos:
           - repo: "c{{ release_major }}-snapshot-baseos"
             priority: 10
+            merge_mode: bare
           - repo: "c{{ release_major }}-snapshot-appstream"
             priority: 20
+            merge_mode: bare
           - repo: "c{{ release_major }}-snapshot-crb"
             priority: 30
+            merge_mode: bare
 
     - name: Clone EPEL old release tag into the new release
       ansible.builtin.command: koji --profile {{ koji_profile }} clone-tag --all --latest-only epel{{ old_release }} epel{{ release }}