diff --git a/src/build-remote/build-remote.cc b/src/build-remote/build-remote.cc
index 6e05e1655..445006b32 100644
--- a/src/build-remote/build-remote.cc
+++ b/src/build-remote/build-remote.cc
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ int main (int argc, char * * argv)
                     Activity act(*logger, lvlTalkative, actUnknown, fmt("connecting to '%s'", bestMachine->storeUri));
 
                     Store::Params storeParams;
-                    if (hasPrefix(storeUri, "ssh://")) {
+                    if (hasPrefix(bestMachine->storeUri, "ssh://")) {
                         storeParams["max-connections"] ="1";
                         storeParams["log-fd"] = "4";
                         if (bestMachine->sshKey != "")
diff --git a/tests/remote-builds.nix b/tests/remote-builds.nix
index 39bd090e4..58a26d8b6 100644
--- a/tests/remote-builds.nix
+++ b/tests/remote-builds.nix
@@ -85,7 +85,10 @@ in
       }
 
       # Perform a build and check that it was performed on the slave.
-      my $out = $client->succeed("nix-build ${expr nodes.client.config 1}");
+      my $out = $client->succeed(
+        "nix-build ${expr nodes.client.config 1} 2> build-output",
+        "grep -q Hello build-output"
+      );
       $slave1->succeed("test -e $out");
 
       # And a parallel build.