diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/shared.rb b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/shared.rb
index 13241403cc..79bd280817 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/shared.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/shared.rb
@@ -306,4 +306,10 @@ module SharedEnvExtension
       end
     end
   end
+
+  def check_for_compiler_universal_support
+    if homebrew_cc =~ GNU_GCC_REGEXP
+      raise "Non-Apple GCC can't build universal binaries"
+    end
+  end
 end
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/std.rb b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/std.rb
index 9b150eae01..8bfc5ce570 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/std.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/std.rb
@@ -269,6 +269,8 @@ module Stdenv
   end
 
   def universal_binary
+    check_for_compiler_universal_support
+
     append_to_cflags Hardware::CPU.universal_archs.as_arch_flags
     append "LDFLAGS", Hardware::CPU.universal_archs.as_arch_flags
 
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/super.rb b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/super.rb
index 31000c592f..8c88cf79bf 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/super.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/extend/ENV/super.rb
@@ -268,6 +268,8 @@ module Superenv
   end
 
   def universal_binary
+    check_for_compiler_universal_support
+
     self["HOMEBREW_ARCHFLAGS"] = Hardware::CPU.universal_archs.as_arch_flags
 
     # GCC doesn't accept "-march" for a 32-bit CPU with "-arch x86_64"