diff --git a/steps/container.py b/steps/container.py
index 7473868..b8f2b6e 100644
--- a/steps/container.py
+++ b/steps/container.py
@@ -32,11 +32,10 @@
 import time
 import multiprocessing as mp
 
-# A future version of Cekit will expose this to us, for now we hard-code
-DOCKER_API_VERSION = "1.35"
+DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION = os.getenv("DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION", "1.44")
 
-base_url = os.environ.get("DOCKER_HOST", docker.constants.DEFAULT_UNIX_SOCKET)
-d = docker.APIClient(version=DOCKER_API_VERSION, base_url=base_url)
+base_url = os.getenv("DOCKER_HOST", docker.constants.DEFAULT_UNIX_SOCKET)
+d = docker.APIClient(version=DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION, base_url=base_url)
 
 
 class ExecException(Exception):
@@ -259,4 +258,3 @@ def _create_container(self, **kwargs):
                                             volumes=volume_mount_points,
                                             host_config=d.create_host_config(**host_args),
                                             **kwargs)
-
diff --git a/steps/image_steps.py b/steps/image_steps.py
index 4dfbdf6..ba404dd 100644
--- a/steps/image_steps.py
+++ b/steps/image_steps.py
@@ -4,11 +4,10 @@
 
 from behave import then
 
-# A future version of Cekit will expose this to us, for now we hard-code
-DOCKER_API_VERSION = "1.35"
+DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION = os.getenv("DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION", "1.44")
 
-base_url = os.environ.get("DOCKER_HOST", docker.constants.DEFAULT_UNIX_SOCKET)
-DOCKER_CLIENT = docker.APIClient(version=DOCKER_API_VERSION, base_url=base_url)
+base_url = os.getenv("DOCKER_HOST", docker.constants.DEFAULT_UNIX_SOCKET)
+DOCKER_CLIENT = docker.APIClient(version=DOCKER_MIN_API_VERSION, base_url=base_url)
 
 @then(u'the image should contain label {label}')
 @then(u'the image should contain label {label} {check} value {value}')