diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 7c919e56..b04ca620 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ addons:
     - libcrypto++-dev
     - libfuse-dev
 install:
+# Workaround homebrew bug, see https://twitter.com/axccl/status/1083393735277363205 and https://github.com/openPMD/openPMD-api/pull/431/files
+- if [ "${TRAVIS_OS_NAME}" == "osx" ]; then travis_wait brew upgrade --cleanup; travis_wait brew upgrade --cleanup; fi
 # Use new clang
 - if [ "${TRAVIS_OS_NAME}" == "linux" ] && [ "$CXX" = "clang++" ]; then export CXX="clang++-3.7" CC="clang-3.7"; fi
 # Detect number of CPU cores