The BJCP conducted four separate exam sessions during the 2014 National Homebrewers Conference in Grand Rapids, MI. Organized by Midwest Representative and Grand Master judge Sandy Cockerham, the exams were administered by Associate Exam Director and Grand Master judge Agatha Feltus and National-level judge Bruce Buerger.

The BJCP imposes a cap of 10 exam sites that may administer an exam each month, with a limit set to the number of individuals who may sit for an exam at each site. The National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) is the exception to this rule, where no such cap exists. There are also no requirements to the minimum number of judges required to take the written exam at the NHC. As a result of the lack of a cap, the exam organizers prepare for an estimated 75 exams.

The NHC administered a total of 60 exams, consisting of 39 tasting, 7 written, 6 mead, and 8 trial cider exams. The written exam took place on Tuesday, while the Mead and Tasting exams overlapped during the morning of Wednesday, June 11. The cider exam was administered after the Written Beer exam on Tuesday. The Cider exam is currently like the Beer tasting exam. It has been disclosed by President Gordon Strong that the intent is to move the Cider Exam to an online format going forward, and that efforts are underway for that transition.

Eight existing BJCP judges took a beta of the cider exam. That group included Phil Farrell, Mark Simpson, James Golovich, Gordon Strong, Roxanne Westendorf, Thomas Barnes, Kira Barnes, and Eric Fouch. The exam consists of six ciders of varying styles, selected from the categories in the 2014 style guidelines.

Examinees took the cider exam without any official training material, which is also currently under development by the Exam Directorate. The cider exams were graded against the newly released 2014 BJCP Style Guidelines, for which the guidelines for cider have been updated. The Exam Directorate is also undergoing the development of cider exam studying materials and training for grading cider exams.

The intent of the trial cider exam was to establish judges within the program with the Cider Judge designation, to qualify National or higher level judges who pass the trial exam to grade future cider exams, and to provide the Exam Directorate practical experience in grading the exams.

When asked how the Cider Exam was proctored when no one has passed the exam (as it has never been given), President Gordon Strong noted "Volunteer judges with high ranks and known good proctoring skills self-identified as being fluent in cider. Basically, proctors, graders, and examinees were all volunteers and most of the people could likely have exchanged roles. We're testing the process more than trying to recognize the skills of those who took the exam." Those selected as proctors were judges Agatha Feltus, Brian Eichorn, and Brian Joas, all regular graders and proctors.

"It seemed like a normal exam, which was good. It was surprisingly well organized and executed for a pilot test. Everything seemed to work. Bruce Buerger did a great job of having all the materials updated, and ran the exam like it would be in production. I didn't note any problems, but we'll see how it works with the graders and final review," noted Strong.

The Cider Committee is working with the Exam Directorate in the grading of the exams, and determining whether or not additional beta exams will be warranted before the cider exam is made available to all program members.