diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4d6ef04..c488e77 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -72,9 +72,9 @@ If running on EC2 the IAM instance profile credentials will be used if credentia
 
 * project_tag
 
-  Cap-EC2 will look for a tag with this name when searching for instances that belong to this project. 
-  Cap-EC2 will look for a value which matches the :application setting in your deploy.rb. 
-  The tag name defaults to "Project" and must be set on your instances.
+  Cap-EC2 will look for a tag with this name when searching for instances that belong to this project.
+  Cap-EC2 will look for a value which matches the :application setting in your deploy.rb. The tag name
+  defaults to "Project". If this tag is not set on the instances, then use `set :ec2_project_tag, nil`.
 
 * stages_tag
 
diff --git a/lib/cap-ec2/ec2-handler.rb b/lib/cap-ec2/ec2-handler.rb
index 2d54887..9224a7a 100644
--- a/lib/cap-ec2/ec2-handler.rb
+++ b/lib/cap-ec2/ec2-handler.rb
@@ -59,19 +59,20 @@ def tag(tag_name)
     end
 
     def get_servers_for_role(role)
-      servers = []
-      @ec2.each do |_, ec2|
-        instances = ec2.instances
-          .filter(tag(project_tag), "*#{application}*")
-          .filter('instance-state-name', 'running')
-        servers << instances.select do |i|
+      @ec2.map do |_, ec2|
+        instances = project_tag ?
+                    ec2.instances.filter(tag(project_tag), "*#{application}*") :
+                    ec2.instances
+        filtered = instances.filter('instance-state-name', 'running')
+
+        filtered.select do |i|
           instance_has_tag?(i, roles_tag, role) &&
             instance_has_tag?(i, stages_tag, stage) &&
-            instance_has_tag?(i, project_tag, application) &&
+            (project_tag.nil? || instance_has_tag?(i, project_tag, application)) &&
             (fetch(:ec2_filter_by_status_ok?) ? instance_status_ok?(i) : true)
-        end
+
+        end.flatten.sort_by { |s| s.tage["Name"] || ''}
       end
-      servers.flatten.sort_by {|s| s.tags["Name"] || ''}
     end
 
     def get_server(instance_id)