diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/test/testing_env.rb b/Library/Homebrew/test/testing_env.rb
index 5f98ace15d14e..4f2619464b936 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/test/testing_env.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/test/testing_env.rb
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ def assert_version_detected(expected, url, specs = {})
     end
 
     def assert_version_nil(url)
-      assert_nil Version.parse(url)
+      assert Version.parse(url).null?
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/version.rb b/Library/Homebrew/version.rb
index 433964dc700f6..57a9c11a50cef 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/version.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/version.rb
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ def tokenize
 
   def self.parse(spec)
     version = _parse(spec)
-    new(version) unless version.nil?
+    version.nil? ? NULL : new(version)
   end
 
   def self._parse(spec)