diff --git a/lom/src/main/kotlin/lom.gradle.kts b/lom/src/main/kotlin/lom.gradle.kts
index 6994323..5b951c8 100644
--- a/lom/src/main/kotlin/lom.gradle.kts
+++ b/lom/src/main/kotlin/lom.gradle.kts
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ afterEvaluate {
     // from fabric-example-mod, enforces modern java
     tasks.withType<JavaCompile>().configureEach {
         options.encoding = "UTF-8"
-        options.release.set(17)
+        options.release.set(if (SemanticVersion.parse(args.minecraftVersion.get()) > SemanticVersion(1, 20, 4, VersionType.RELEASE, null)) 21 else 17)
     }
 
     // otherwise we can't easily overwrite the artifacts to publish while keeping dependency metadata