With less than two months to go, I reckon there's not enough time for anything too fancy! But I was involved in an unrelated conversation on Jim's forum that gave me my choice the Coronation:
It's fairly strong (for a British pub beer), it won't need the maturing of a hoppy "IPA" (for which there isn't time), it still has its modern incarnation being sold as a premium British "bitter" (but it's not really a bitter), its ancestry is an Edwardian "mild ale", (WHAT!
... Wait for it! I was surprised when I figured this out!), it's the last remaining (and it probably isn't the "last", I'm just amazed you can still come across one) "XXXX" still in production, it's an early incarnation of ... Wadworth's 6X!
Read about it here:
http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/137/6X.pdf (from an author who should know!).
Recipe here (for the close-on last of their strong XXXX versions, not called 6X yet):
Let's Brew Wednesday - 1922 Wadworth XXXX
A modern recipe here:
British Brewer » wadworth 6x clone (that's just an example, but Wadworth
did let everyone know the recipe an older Web site). 93% pale, 4% crystal and 3% sugar (85% Fuggles, 15% Golding). You might use
@Northern_Brewer's choice of hops for a more patriotic feel? After all, Wadworth's appeared to wave a few Golding hops at it and call it a "Bitter". If you're going to use "Invert Sugar No.3" do use one of my emulations and save yourself some unnecessary labour (or expenditure)!
It was originally OG 1.055-57, dropping to 1.050 post WWII, 1.043 and 1.041 only quite recently. I might try a pre-WWII version; it
may have some flaked maize (haven't determined yet), but I will use Chavallier barley malt 'cos it's all I've got (pushing it to believe they might still be using it back then). Possibly no Goldings by then, all Fuggles? What the hell, close enough.
It's 6X's 100th anniversary this year too!