diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/compilers.rb b/Library/Homebrew/compilers.rb
index 55f8c3fe0d..7080f69e7a 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/compilers.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/compilers.rb
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ class CompilerFailure
   def self.create(spec, &block)
     # Non-Apple compilers are in the format fails_with compiler => version
     if spec.is_a?(Hash)
-      _, major_version = spec.first
+      _, major_version = spec.each { |e| break e }
       name = "gcc-#{major_version}"
       # so fails_with :gcc => '4.8' simply marks all 4.8 releases incompatible
       version = "#{major_version}.999"