diff --git a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
index 8497cf902..e0724503d 100755
--- a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
+++ b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
@@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ clone_to_tmp() {
   # Make a temp location for the files
   mkdir -p /tmp/sogh
   cd /tmp/sogh
-  SOUP_BRANCH=""
+  SOUP_BRANCH="-b 2.4/main"
   if [ -n "$BRANCH" ]; then
     SOUP_BRANCH="-b $BRANCH"
   fi