diff --git a/templates/packer/variables.pkr.hcl b/templates/packer/variables.pkr.hcl
index 01195e75e..4e01a2580 100644
--- a/templates/packer/variables.pkr.hcl
+++ b/templates/packer/variables.pkr.hcl
@@ -9,9 +9,6 @@ variable "region" {
   default = "us-east-1"
 }
 
-# Base image
-variable "ami_id" { type = string }
-
 # Automatically set by environment variables in GitHub Actions.
 variable "composer_commit" { type = string }
 variable "osbuild_commit" { type = string }
diff --git a/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl b/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl
index 850cf6e65..ad586ba16 100644
--- a/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl
+++ b/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ source "amazon-ebs" "image_builder" {
   region = var.region
 
   # Use a static RHEL 8.5 Cloud Access Image.
-  source_ami          = "${var.ami_id}"
+  source_ami          = "ami-06f1e6f8b3457ae7c"
 
   # Remove previous image before making the new one.
   force_deregister = true
diff --git a/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh b/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh
index d3cf5d34a..562a7c6a4 100755
--- a/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh
+++ b/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ set -exv
 COMMIT_SHA=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
 COMMIT_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
 ON_JENKINS=true
-AMI_ID=ami-06f1e6f8b3457ae7c
 
 # Use gitlab CI variables if available
 if [ -n "$CI_COMMIT_SHA" ]; then
@@ -51,6 +50,7 @@ set -exv
 EOF
 chmod +x worker-packer.sh
 
+# warning: this is RHEL 8 x86_64 specific!
 function ec2_rpm_build {
     cat >> worker-packer.sh <<'EOF'
 function cleanup {
@@ -72,7 +72,8 @@ mkdir -p "$RPMBUILD_DIR"
 
 aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name "$KEY_NAME" --query 'KeyMaterial' --output text > /osbuild-composer/keypair.pem
 chmod 600 /osbuild-composer/keypair.pem
-aws ec2 run-instances --image-id "$PKR_VAR_ami_id" --instance-type c5.large --key-name "$KEY_NAME" \
+# rhel 8.5 AMI
+aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-06f1e6f8b3457ae7c --instance-type c5.large --key-name "$KEY_NAME" \
     --tag-specifications "ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=commit,Value=$COMMIT_SHA},{Key=name,Value=rpm-builder-$COMMIT_SHA}]" \
     > ./rpminstance.json
 AWS_INSTANCE_ID=$(jq -r '.Instances[].InstanceId' "rpminstance.json")
@@ -144,7 +145,6 @@ $CONTAINER_RUNTIME run --rm \
                    -e RH_ACTIVATION_KEY="$RH_ACTIVATION_KEY" \
                    -e RH_ORG_ID="$RH_ORG_ID" \
                    -e PKR_VAR_aws_access_key="$PACKER_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID" \
-                   -e PKR_VAR_ami_id="$AMI_ID" \
                    -e PKR_VAR_aws_secret_key="$PACKER_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY" \
                    -e PKR_VAR_image_name="osbuild-composer-worker-$COMMIT_BRANCH-$COMMIT_SHA" \
                    -e PKR_VAR_composer_commit="$COMMIT_SHA" \