diff --git a/spack_setup.sh b/spack_setup.sh
index 6511bbcd9e455fb224f5f98663662b7b8fa6d842..5311f42cdcd24de19d77147c9b9fa88e2fec1fe1 100755
--- a/spack_setup.sh
+++ b/spack_setup.sh
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ set -E -o pipefail
 # ---- configuration variables ----
 spack_git='https://github.com/mpsd-computational-science/spack.git'
 spack_git_ssh='git@github.com:mpsd-computational-science/spack.git'
-spack_branch='mpsd/v0.19'
-system_compiler="gcc@10.2.1"
+spack_branch='mpsd/v0.19_dev-23a'
+system_compiler="gcc"
 generic_arch="x86_64_v2"
 # default: spack cache is one level above pwd
 spack_cache=`realpath ../mpsd-spack-cache`