“The warehouse that was destroyed contained 45,000 barrels of relatively young whiskey from the Jim Beam mash bill,” Beam Suntory said in a statement posted on Twitter.

No one was injured in the blaze, which initial reports indicate “resulted from a lightning strike,” it said.

And whiskey drinkers can rest easy, as the loss of the 45,000 barrels – a small fraction of the roughly 3.3 million at the company’s warehouses in Kentucky – should not impact supply.

“Given the age of the lost whiskey, this fire will not impact the availability of Jim Beam for consumers,” the company said.

Suntory Holdings acquired Beam Inc. for nearly US$16 billion in 2014 in one of the biggest-ever overseas acquisitions by a Japanese firm.

Beam sells a range of bourbons other whiskeys, having evolved from a small family base in Kentucky.