Why is oxygen bad for mead?

I see comments on YouTube about how oxygen is bad for mead. However, according to Wikipedia, oxygen is good for yeast to develop resistance to alcohol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast_in_winemaking#The_role_of_oxygen

Yeasts are facultative anaerobes meaning that they can exist in both the presence and absence of oxygen. While fermentation is traditionally thought of as an anaerobic process done in the absence of oxygen, early exposure of the yeast to oxygen can be a vital component in the successful completion of that fermentation. This is because oxygen is important in the synthesis of cell "survival factors".

What is wrong with aerating a fermenter or introducing oxygen during racking? Won't that strengthen the yeast for secondary fermentation?

Topic oxygenation mead yeast homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

You are confusing a couple of things. You want oxygen for a robust fermentation, no doubt about that. BUT, after the primary fermentation is done, you want to cut off the supply of oxygen otherwise the mead/wine/beer will oxidize because there is nothing to consume the oxygen. With beer we replace that with CO2, but with mead and wine you need to do something to keep the oxygen away. That means in an aging vessel with little headroom and probably potassium metabisulfite which is a strong antioxidant. Mead doesn't undergo a secondary fermentation, unlike wine. But even then, the bacteria that causes that does not need oxygen to work.

Long story short, during primary lots of oxygen. After primary is over, keep oxygen away.

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