diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
index eddacf08dd..cf7b50e555 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
@@ -73,7 +73,8 @@ class Formula
     when @head && ARGV.build_head?        then @head    # --HEAD
     when @devel && ARGV.build_devel?      then @devel   # --devel
     when @bottle && install_bottle?(self) then @bottle  # bottle available
-    when @stable.nil? && @head            then @head    # head-only
+    when @devel && @stable.nil?           then @devel   # devel-only
+    when @head && @stable.nil?            then @head    # head-only
     else @stable
     end
   end
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/test/test_formula_validation.rb b/Library/Homebrew/test/test_formula_validation.rb
index be4c38c641..5c6bf28884 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/test/test_formula_validation.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/test/test_formula_validation.rb
@@ -59,6 +59,17 @@ class FormulaValidationTests < Test::Unit::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  def test_devel_only_valid
+    assert_nothing_raised do
+      formula do
+        devel do
+          url "foo"
+          version "1.0"
+        end
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
   def test_head_only_valid
     assert_nothing_raised do
       formula do