I grabbed my bench supply some ice and water and hooked the Peltier device up again. This time I took more thermal images (still downloading the Fluke app) As promised this device pulls 5 amp @ 12 volts (~60 watts). As the temperature differential gets smaller the current draw seems to decrease (at least this preliminary test shows that) maybe there is a possibility to run open loop and just follow current for control?

So after 30 minutes the ice water is hot (~40*C) but the heatsink still remains fairly cold-ish to the touch, I still think this idea might work, less liquid more solid H2O will be necessary depending on the set temp expected.