Two Attleboro buddies are brewing up a new hard cider company they hope will give their hometown a crisp, economic boost.

Jeremy Quaglia and Kyle Schmitt, both 23, have spent their nights and weekends over the past year concocting Homestead Hard Cider. The duo launched a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign to pay for necessary equipment and cider house facility upgrades as they await?licensing for their product.

“We want to put Attleboro on the map. We have these great restaurants and little shops (but) there’s nothing from Attleboro that puts it on the map outside of town,” Schmitt, a University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate, told the Herald. “We want to be kind of a face or something that can be assimilated to Attleboro and show people that the small businesses are what is going to bring our city back.”

With less than a month to go, Homestead’s co-founders, who both work full-time jobs apart from their new enterprise, are a quarter of the way closer toward their funding goal. Proceeds will go toward stainless steel fermenters, a kegging system, pint glasses and T-shirts.

Quaglia, an Emmanuel College graduate, said the pair plan to start out small by getting their gluten-free, 100-percent natural apple-based Homestead cider into local bars and stores during the summer.

“If we get involved with distribution that does actually deliver to Providence and Boston and stays centered in Attleboro, that would be a dream come true for us,” he said.

The pair said they initially started brewing beer as a hobby, but changed to cider after seeing a stronger market potential for the orchard beverage.

“While it’s 1 percent of the entire liquor market, (cider’s) still growing every year,” Schmitt said. “Even in Amherst, I would see Woodchuck (Hard Cider) fly off the shelves. You see Angry Orchard all over the place now.”

“When I was younger I didn’t see anyone drink a hard cider, but now that I’m older, you can apply the same care and concern people apply to beer and get a similar craft product of the same caliber,” Quaglia added.

Mike Beck, co-owner of Uncle John’s Cider Mill in St. John’s, Mich., and president of the U.S. Association of Cider Makers, said now is an opportune time to establish a hard cider company despite its small presence in the liquor world.

“There’s a lot of room in the market right now, so it’s encouraging for a small producer,” Beck said. “With our own facility, it took five, six years before we sold a drop beyond the tasting room door.”

While he’s a teetotaler known for ordering milk when others order beer, U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, who represents Attleboro, praised the duo for their entrepreneurship.

“Though he may not personally sample their products, Congressman Kennedy applauds anyone trying to bring innovative new business to Attleboro and our Gateway Cities,” said spokeswoman Emily Browne.