diff --git a/packages/meta-brainscales/package.py b/packages/meta-brainscales/package.py
index a3755fed0eec722da2007ebc2d34225be1da5023..63577797853f00efe3727364722db8932037f641 100644
--- a/packages/meta-brainscales/package.py
+++ b/packages/meta-brainscales/package.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class MetaBrainscales(Package):
     depends_on('doxygen+graphviz')
     depends_on('genpybind@ebrains')
     depends_on('gflags')
-    depends_on('googletest+gmock')
+    depends_on('googletest@1.11.0: +gmock') # variadic templates needed
     depends_on('intel-tbb')  # ppu gdbserver
     depends_on('libelf')
     depends_on('liblockfile')