Meet Craft Industry Trailblazer Hannah Ferguson & Her Positivity-Spreading Brand DOPE

Meet Hannah Ferguson: She’s a wine and cider maker, business owner, positivity spreader, and a black, female trailblazer in the craft industry. 

From Part-Time Hobby To Full-Time Job

Hannah began her craft journey 10+ years ago making wine from home as a hobby. Over time, her attention was grabbed by both hops and apples, and she worked as an Assistant Brewer for a few years where she learned the ropes as the only black female professional brewer in Ohio. 

But her passion has always been wine and, as of 4 years ago, cider as well. As more urban wineries were popping up around Youngstown, OH, Hannah caught wind of homebrewers making their hobbies their full-time jobs. That’s how her brand DOPE was born. 

DOPE Shares Positivity & Exceptional Products

DOPE stands for Dwelling On Positive Energy, and Hannah collaborated on the perfect name for her brand with her brother. 

The first black and female-owned cidery in Ohio, DOPE Cider House and Winery opened its doors in August 2022. Hannah leased a building attached to Penguin City Brewing Company and converted it into a tasting room with a garage door for open air seating. 

Guests can choose from 8 cider taps on any given visit. Hannah mixes up the flavors every month and a half, and frequently experiments with options like hot hard cider and cider slushies. 

If that doesn’t have your mouth drooling, the ingredient list will: Hannah sources from various high quality vendors such as local cider mills, Walker’s Juice Farm, and 100% juice concentrates from Michigan. 

With her beverage offerings dialed in, Hannah needed tasting room technology that could support her passion without hindering her creativity. 

Arryved POS Makes Hannah’s Job Easier

As she’s no stranger to the industry, Hannah’s also no stranger to POS systems. Arryved’s technology stood out because of its focus on human connections and a craft-centric feature set.

Industry Expertise + Award-Winning Support Won Hannah Over

Hannah worked with brewery friends to identify the right POS system for DOPE. The industry experience of the entire Arryved team made Hannah feel like DOPE would be in good hands.

Hannah onboarded DOPE alongside 2 former brewery General Managers, all of them in awe of the tools Arryved provides for beverage-heavy businesses. 

Plus, as Hannah had questions along the way, Arryved’s fast and friendly Customer Support ensured onboarding ran smoothly and relieved her stress as a new business owner. 

“I’m big on customer service, especially since it’s me that’s been the only one running this business, it takes away some stress for me,” Hannah shares. “The problem is always resolved instantly. I never have to wait for a call back.”

Now, she knows Support team members on a first name basis and feels at ease knowing they’re there to help whenever she needs it.

Automated POS Reports Are Easy To Access & Keep Hannah In The Loop

That’s not the only Arryved friend Hannah has made. Rosie, Arryved’s automated Report Robot, sends emails morning and night to keep Hannah informed on DOPE’s performance. 

“My best friend is Rosie now,” Hannah laughs. “I like it because I don’t have to go look for it—it’s right there in my email. I can check it out, and if I want to get something more detailed I can just go into the Arryved Portal.”

Receiving automatic data updates daily and weekly keeps Hannah in-the-know and worryfree when she’s not in the tasting room herself. If Rosie flags something, Hannah can dig deeper and catch any inefficiencies early on, ultimately saving time and money.

Flight Tools Let Both DOPE & Guests Experiment With Different Ciders

A fermenter at heart, Hannah loves mixing up DOPE’s cider offerings. Thanks to Arryved’s handy flight tools, customizing a flight order is easy behind the bar and it’s straightforward to track individual best sellers on the backend. That way, Hannah can quantify her experiments and see which flavors her guests like the most.

Plus, it’s a guest engagement tool. Hannah’s Saturday night bartenders are known as the Flight Crew for all the medlies of ciders they assemble, and guests love trying a little bit of everything DOPE has to offer. 

“If there’s 8 different things on tap, people will get 2 flights back to back so they can try all 8 flavors!” Hannah says. 

It’s clear DOPE is fulfilling its mission to share both good energy and specialty ciders. Cheers to you, Hannah!

Featured image courtesy of DOPE Cider House & Winery.