diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php
index 85483fd3c2..80dd8a0129 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/HttpKernel/Kernel.php
@@ -640,7 +640,7 @@ abstract class Kernel implements KernelInterface, TerminableInterface
             }
         }
 
-        $container = new ContainerBuilder(new ParameterBag($this->getKernelParameters()));
+        $container = $this->getContainerBuilder();
         $extensions = array();
         foreach ($this->bundles as $bundle) {
             if ($extension = $bundle->getContainerExtension()) {
@@ -671,6 +671,16 @@ abstract class Kernel implements KernelInterface, TerminableInterface
         return $container;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Gets a new ContainerBuilder instance used to build the service container.
+     *
+     * @return ContainerBuilder
+     */
+    protected function getContainerBuilder()
+    {
+        return new ContainerBuilder(new ParameterBag($this->getKernelParameters()));
+    }
+
     /**
      * Dumps the service container to PHP code in the cache.
      *