diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
index a170459e68..a3996909e1 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
@@ -366,8 +366,8 @@ class GitDownloadStrategy < AbstractDownloadStrategy
       else
         # otherwise the checkout-index won't checkout HEAD
         # https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues/7124
-        # must specify origin/master, otherwise it resets to the current local HEAD
-        quiet_safe_system "git", "reset", "--hard", "origin/master"
+        # must specify origin/HEAD, otherwise it resets to the current local HEAD
+        quiet_safe_system "git", "reset", "--hard", "origin/HEAD"
       end
       # http://stackoverflow.com/questions/160608/how-to-do-a-git-export-like-svn-export
       safe_system 'git', 'checkout-index', '-a', '-f', "--prefix=#{dst}/"