diff --git a/etk/knowledge_graph/graph.py b/etk/knowledge_graph/graph.py
index ec387593..a3b035da 100644
--- a/etk/knowledge_graph/graph.py
+++ b/etk/knowledge_graph/graph.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ def serialize(self, format='ttl', namespace_manager=None, **kwargs):
         else:
             b_string = self._g.serialize(format=format, **kwargs)
         if isinstance(b_string, bytes):
-            b_string.decode('UTF-8')
+            b_string = b_string.decode('UTF-8')
         return b_string
 
     @lru_cache()
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0253b2c3..f24afd42 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name="etk",
-    version="2.2.5",
+    version="2.2.6",
     author="Amandeep Singh",
     author_email="amandeep.s.saggu@gmail.com",
     description="extraction toolkit",